Fall Gently (Red Light: Silver Girls series) (7 page)

"Let's get her." Ella stepped off the path where Jeremy had shoveled snow away from the door. "If we both gang up on her, she'll stop acting like a child, sneak her cigarette, and we can go back downstairs and watch the rest of the movie."

Lynn glanced up, raised her brows, and took the overheard challenge. Roni hurried over beside Ella and gathered a pile of snow and started forming balls.

"Shana, get over here. You're on my team." Lynn loaded the crook of her arm with snowballs.

Roni barely had her arsenal made when the first snowball flew and hit Ella. Lynn yelled out in victory. Roni threw, missed, and grabbed another one. Her second throw hit Shana in the shoulder. She jumped in victory, her boots never leaving the snow packed roof, and smiled.

Her success short lived, another snowball hit her on the side of the head and snow sprayed off and under her hood, melting on the side of her neck. She shivered, grabbing for Ella.

"I'm out." She laughed when a blast from a snowball hit Ella at the top of her coat.

Ella screamed in surprise.

"Sh." Roni laughed, tugging Ella back to the path. "Tiff will come up here and think we're causing trouble."

"Not Tiff." A male voice spoke behind her.

She whirled around and came face to face with Jeremy. "I-I'm sorry."

Jeremy held a snowball in his bare hand and cocked his brow. "I get one throw. You choose."

"Um." She glanced back and forth between Lynn and Jeremy, fighting a wild giggle. He probably wouldn't throw one and only wanted to tease her. Though Lynn deserved at least one hit for how many times her snowball connected with Roni.

"Lynn," she whispered.

Shana pushed Lynn away from her. "Oh, God, girl. Run. He's coming after you."

Lynn fell to her knees in the snow, threw her hands in the air. "I give. I give."

"No rules." Jeremy winked at Roni and whipped the ball through the air at his target with an easy form.

The snowball landed on Lynn's shoulder, sending her toppling over into the snow laughing and swearing to retaliate. Roni bit down on her lip to keep from laughing. The ease at which Jeremy joined the fun and participated on her behave warmed her.

"Tiff wants to see you downstairs," said Jeremy gathering more snow in his hand. "I'll hold these ladies off while you make your escape."

She sobered, nodded, and hurried to the door. Having come up on the roof after dinner, she was on her free time. Usually, Tiff left the ladies to entertain themselves unless the madam had a grievance toward her work. She couldn't imagine what she'd done. Her customers were happy, and she'd even made more tips today than the previous two weeks she'd worked at Red Light.

Inside the building, she stomped her boots to rid them of snow and pulled off her gloves. She found Tiff in the kitchen and knocked on the open doorway.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked.

Tiff shut the cabinet door and turned with a smile. "Are the other ladies still on the roof?"

She nodded. "Jeremy's up there with them. They're having a snowball fight."

"Good." Tiff removed the apron over her head and smoothed the front of her shirt over her baby bump. "You have a guest in your room. Jeremy will take him out of the building later."

"Dawson?" Her stomach fluttered, confusing her more.

Tiff frowned. "I've promised Jeremy I won't ask questions, but I'm going to ask you again if you're okay with him seeing you?"

Roni inhaled, torn between being the exemplary sex worker to stay out of trouble and needing a woman to talk to about Dawson. Once again, she wished Jackie were alive and here with her to discuss what to do with her brother.

"I guess." Roni shrugged. "He's the brother of a woman I was close to, and I think he's having a hard time coming to grips that his sister is dead."

"Oh, honey." Tiff hugged her.

She wasn't prepared for the embrace. Her arms trapped to her side by the spontaneous show of affection, she could only stand there and let Tiff hug her. A comforting ache settled in her chest. Unused to emotional contact despite giving blowjobs for a living, she couldn't stop her thoughts from coming out.

"I miss her so much," Roni said.

"Of course, you do." Tiff pulled back and put her hands on Roni's shoulders. "Death is the worst part of life. Those left behind suffer the most."

"I know." Roni sniffed. "I better go talk to Dawson while the others are on the roof."

Tiff cocked her head and lowered her voice. "Do you know what he wants from you?"

Roni nodded. "I can't give him what he wants, and I don't think he understands my position and what he's asking of me."

"Men are all the same, honey," whispered Tiff. " You know how to convince him to leave you alone if that's what you want to happen."

She trembled even thinking about what Tiff recommended doing. It was one thing to open her mouth to customers who left immediately afterward. Dawson was Jackie's brother. She couldn't seduce him or blow him off. It'd be awkward and wrong, and she had no idea if that was a part of why he wouldn't give up the thought of helping her and continued to hang around.

"Okay," she mumbled.

Tiff gave her hand a parting squeeze. Roni walked out of the kitchen and to her room. Outside the door, she paused and took a deep breath. She had never used her body to get her way before. She catered to men for money and had only submitted to Vince out of survival.

She blew her cheeks out, held her breath, and slowly let the air escape. Then she entered the room.

Dawson stood with his back to her, staring out the sliding glass door into the night. She quietly shut the main door, conscious of him unaware of her coming inside the room.

His broad shoulder rounded in thought.

His large hand planted on the glass held him up.

She swallowed and remained by the door. Something was off.

Every time he'd visited her in the last few weeks, he'd made an appointment or stayed after his paid time was over with approval from Jeremy and Tiff. Dawson never showed up during her free time.

After two days had gone by without him stopping by Red Light to visit her, she'd had the thought that he'd left town and gave up on her.

Earlier when Marci handed her the schedule for the day, she'd finally relaxed at finding his name gone from the list. With his absence, her job security returned. She could plan to stay working at Red Light until her contract was over and then move on to the next bordello within the Network.

But he hadn't left town, and she found herself stunned by her reaction. She wasn't disappointed, and instead found herself relieved he'd stayed.

The second Jeremy had asked her to go downstairs and talk to Tiff, she stepped back at the quick burst of adrenaline hitting her. Talking with the madam meant she'd broken a rule or left a customer unhappy with her service. But, her first thought, no, her hope was that Dawson had come to her.

That change in her attitude was worse than anything. She couldn't afford to care what Dawson thought or worry about his feelings.

He couldn't stay.

A man lost in his grief. Dawson latched on to her to shake the demons off his back. He wanted Jackie, Sparrows, and his former life back. Including her as the property of Sparrows.

Tiff was right.

She could give Dawson comfort and permission to find his way back to Seattle where he had a home and possibly other people to help him better than she could.

She could release him from his promise to his sister because it was the least she could do in memory of Jackie, who'd supported her during more heartbreaking moments with Vince than she could count.

Determined to do the right thing for both of them, she approached Dawson and gently put her arms around him from behind and laid her cheek on his back. The initial hardness of his body only stiffened more.

"Roni?" he said, thick with surprise.

"Sh..." She lowered one of her hands and covered the front of his jeans.

His cock pulsed and enlarged under her exploring fingers. Pressed against his back, she kept her left hand sprawled on his rock hard stomach while her right hand stroked the length of his hardness through his jeans.

A shudder ran through Dawson, and his upper body leaned forward on a groan. She closed her eyes at the onslaught of desire warming her, shocking her. The strength and power in a strong man at his weakest moment empowered her. A boost of confidence she never received from the men who visited the bordello and were all about exhibiting their power came over her from Dawson.

Warning bells rang in her head. Dawson triggered the pain from her past and left her tottering between seeking the safety she longed for and running away before he could hurt her.

With the strength of him held in her hand, she had a choice. And, her choice was for her, because no matter what happened in a minute, in a half hour, there was still only her and she'd be alone. And, Dawson would be gone.

E
very coherent thought escaped Dawson at Roni's touch. He stared at his confused reflection in the glass of the window. All his concentration zeroed in on the pleasure Roni's hand provided his throbbing dick. Growing, straining, demanding.

Warmth filled his cold body. His jaw dropped open, and he breathed through the sweet caress stroking him.

The glass fogged, blocking out the guilt of taking something precious from a woman who had little to give others and deserved much more. He reached down and grabbed her wrist, stopping her movements. The inner struggle to let her continue fought hard inside of him and he selfishly left her hand on the crotch of his jeans, hating the fact that he had to walk away from what she offered.

"No, sweetheart," he muttered, his conscious winning.

Her head lifted from his back. He straightened, taking her hands completely off his body and turned around. Heavy-hearted, he reached for her when she retreated.

Her gaze jerked into awareness and fear. At that moment, he acted on instinct and forgot to worry about scaring her more.

He pulled her into an embrace and cupped the back of her neck, holding her against his chest. "Sh. I've got you."

He inhaled deeply, aware of the tremble of arousal in his body that refused to calm down. The flowery scent of her shampoo filled his nostrils, and he closed his eyes. It'd been four years since he'd held a woman. First prison kept him...well, imprisoned, then the trouble with Jackie kept his mind focused on other things than his personal life. He'd had no desire to seek out the simple comforts of a woman's touch and instead focused on getting through each day.

Roni stood with her arms straight down at her sides and stiff in his embrace. He cradled and kissed the top of her head. The excuses of why he was touching and comforting her stayed inside him. He couldn’t hide the hard-on pressing against her stomach or the wild beating of his heart.

He wanted her.

A beautiful woman who'd meant something to Jacqueline had interested him from the moment he'd heard her name come out of his sister's mouth as a plea for him to help her. Her working as a sex worker never deterred him from his determination to get her away from the Network. He could no more condemn her choices in life than he could stop loving Jacqueline for getting mixed up with Vince.

He'd made bad choices.

She quivered. He held still. Roni had only been in his life a short time, and she already dominated his thoughts.

A soft sniff from Roni pierced his heart, and he stroked her head. He'd never seen her cry before. Beneath her shy and skittish behavior, she'd always held herself aloof and disconnected.

"Hey, hey, hey," he crooned. "I've got you."

Her body trembled more.

Lost in what to do for her, he simply held her. Her silent cry beat him bloody. Sex wasn't the answer. For either one of them. No matter how much he wanted her, what she tried with him tonight came from something else within her.

"You need to leave," she whispered brokenly. "Please. Go back to Seattle and leave me alone."

He pulled her back from his chest and lifted her face. "Is that what this is about? You thought you'd fuck me because you believe that's why I come to see you?"

"Oh, God," she mumbled. "Don't."

"Don't what?"

Her brows pitched down, and the skin wrinkled at the bridge of her nose. "Forget about me."

"Not going to happen, sweetheart." He lowered his voice, and his dick softened even more. "I want you out of prostituting yourself."

"That's all I have." She closed her eyes an extra beat and looked up at him. "I leave the Network and what do I have? Nothing. I have no home in Seattle. No job."

"You have money saved up, right?" He shook his head, straightening his thoughts to the future. "You can stay with me until you find a job and can get a place. Or, we can go somewhere else, and I'll help you. You don't deserve giving your body away. Not to the customers and not to me."

"You don't want...?" Her gaze flickered away from him.

His jaw tightened at the vulnerable statement and how wrong she thought he wouldn't want her. She damn well didn't see what was happening right in front of her eyes.

"It's not a matter of me wanting you or not, Roni. It's the fact you deserve better than using your body to give me pity sex on a bed that's seen more men than I want to think about." He used his thumb to smooth out the lines between her brow. "Sweetheart, you can't tell me that you enjoy being with all the men who walk through the door or under the control of their needs."

She pulled away from him and cupped her elbows in her hands. "You sound like Jackie. She was always telling me the same thing, even though we were both—"

"Jaqueline was not a sex worker." He clamped his mouth shut.

The sister he remembered would never sell herself to a man or for a man to profit off her body. He ran his hands through his hair. Except that's exactly what she'd done while he was locked up in prison. Four years he was gone, and at least two of those years she'd let others abuse her, over and over, until someone raped, killed, and left her lying dead in the park.