Ravage: Lightning Bolts MC (9 page)

My lips throbbed, still sore from that kiss. All right, the sex wasn’t bad either.

Eric

I didn’t give her any sort of choice. She had to come home with me or she could kiss her money goodbye. I knew how much she needed it. I told myself I was being a dick for holding it over her head, but she had made a deal. I wanted to get my money’s worth.

The next time she made a deal like ours, she would get a contract. The way I saw it, I was teaching her a lesson. She should have been grateful to me for it—at least she’d get paid in the end.

It didn’t take long for me to wish I had done things differently. Instead of bringing her with me, I should have given her the money and sent her home. It was different having her home with me. In a lot of ways.

I was always the guy who slept with a lot of women and kicked them out the next day. They were good for getting my dick wet. I didn’t talk to them, except when we were flirting. I didn’t hang out with them. And I didn’t want the same woman twice. When I got finished with one, I was bored with her right away. It was like once I came, I woke up and wondered why I thought she was so hot in the first place. Then she was about as appetizing as yesterday’s leftovers.

Michelle wasn’t like that. I wasn’t like that around her. And it scared the shit out of me.

Whenever I saw her, I wanted to touch her. She could be doing something simple like washing dishes or pouring a glass of water, and I would want to reach for her. I would want to feel her next to me, smell her perfume and the shampoo she used in her hair. I didn’t need to hold her or cuddle with her or even fuck her. I just wanted to touch her and know she was there, and move along. As simple as that. It was fucking torture keeping my hands off her.

It wasn’t just that. She made me look at my life in a different way, which I hated. I always liked my life—especially when I was out of prison and living like a free person. I liked my house the way it was, or I didn’t care about it, at least. I liked waking up late and partying and going to bed in the middle of the night. I liked living while the rest of the world was asleep.

I didn’t need company either. My club was company enough. I went home to sleep and sometimes eat. That was it. I was with them the rest of the time. Honestly, a quiet house was a godsend after a loud party.

After Michelle, I didn’t like being alone all of a sudden. The house felt better when she was in it.

It looked better, too. I told her a hundred times not to bother cleaning up, and she shot me a dirty look every time. “You might be able to hold me hostage, but you’re not going to make me live in a sty,” she said. I never felt bad about being a slob before, but she had me feeling like a kid getting yelled at by his mom. I wished I would have cleaned the place up a little bit before I brought her home, but then I didn’t know I’d end up buying a girl at the auction. If I wasn’t a slob, though, it would have mattered. She made me look at the way I lived, and I wasn’t comfortable with it.

I had to take her for a few things at the store when she looked under the kitchen sink and saw I didn’t have cleaning stuff. “Seriously? You don’t even own Windex?” she asked. “No wonder the windows are filthy.”

The craziest part was I didn’t fight with her, even though any other woman would have gotten my temper and an invitation to suck my cock. I didn’t wanna go down that road. Why didn’t I own cleaning products? Because I was in prison for years and just got back. I was too busy partying and cramming in all the fun I missed when I was gone to worry about keeping the place clean.

I couldn’t stop being a smart-ass, though. “Isn’t that what women are for?”

She shot me the dirtiest look I ever saw, which was saying a lot. “Obviously, no decent woman would bother spending more than five minutes here, so I can’t see how you could get one of them to stay.”

“Believe me,” I said with a smirk, “it takes a lot longer than five minutes. But you know that already.”

“Yeah, and you had to pay me to get me to stay the night. Again, I see how the place doesn’t get cleaned.”

I had to bite my tongue to keep from calling her a bitch, and worse than that. So I took her out to get cleaning stuff, and food, and clothes. That was another thing. She couldn’t walk around the house in a tight dress all the time, even though I kinda wanted to see what she would look like, scrubbing a floor with her ass in the air with that dress riding up.

She was right, though, and she picked out sweats and socks and underwear, plus a pair of running shoes. We must have looked ridiculous, her in a dress and heels, me in my leather kutte and jeans, at Walmart on a Saturday morning. I could see people making up stories in their heads. I thought it was funny.

She didn’t. I noticed the way she let her dark hair hide her face sometimes, especially when we stood in line at the register. “What, afraid to be seen with me?” I tried not to let the hurt into my voice. I wasn’t even hurt, I was pissed. She was so like all the other people in town, the ones who thought they were better than the MC. It didn’t usually bother me. I could laugh it off, maybe even fuck with them by standing too close or staring at them from across the aisle. I usually loved watching them turn pale and run off—even the bigger guys. For some reason it bothered the shit out of me when she did it.

When we got back to the house, she got to work. She went upstairs to change and when she came down it was like a totally different person was in the house with me. She had put her hair in a bun on top of her head, wiped off all her makeup, and changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt. She was even wearing a sports bra underneath—I could see the outline through the thin cotton. She really went over-the-top trying to unsex herself.

It didn’t matter. I wanted her more than ever. Without the makeup, she was still beautiful, maybe even gorgeous. She sort of glowed, like those girls in the soap commercials. I didn’t think people like her existed in real life. I never knew anybody like her. And she couldn’t hide that body underneath a pair of sweatpants. I knew what she had going on, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The little thong panties she bought, which of course I took a look at as she put them on the conveyor belt for the cashier, left the outline of her ass perfect in the pants she wore. I could have watched her walk away all day.

I sat on the couch with my feet on the coffee table and let her get to work. I couldn’t wait to see how long she held out before she got tired and gave up. I wouldn’t blame her if she did, but I would give her shit for it—if only to get her back for giving me shit over the way the house looked, which she mentioned every other minute or so.

She put on a pair of rubber gloves, which I thought was a little much but kept my mouth shut, and walked around with a giant trash bag. She emptied all the takeout containers and pizza boxes into it. Her head was turned to the side so she wouldn’t have to see what was inside the containers. Like she’d find a severed head or something.

I sighed loudly. “Jesus Christ, it’s not that bad.”

“It smells like a garbage dump in here. I can’t believe you don’t smell it.” She opened a window and fanned her arms dramatically up and down. I shook my head and bit back a smile.

I didn’t care. She was cleaning it up. I didn’t know I’d be getting maid service for my thirty grand.

She washed the insides of the windows, and I couldn’t keep myself from watching her. Her ass jiggled a little as her arm moved in circles on the glass. Every once in a while I’d see her tits from underneath her arm, and they’d move a little, too. I stared, breathing heavy, getting hard. She stopped once and looked back at me.

“What are you staring at?”

“What do you think?”

She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t know I was putting on a show.”

“You don’t have to do anything but what you’re doing. I’ll just watch.”

She turned to me with her fists on her hips. “You could help, you know. Instead of sitting there like some sort of sultan. It’s your house. Why don’t you take a little pride in it?”

“You know, I don’t let just everybody talk to me that way. You’re getting away with a lot right now.”

“I’m shaking in my boots.” We faced off for a minute. I had to give her credit, she stared me down. I looked away first.

“Do you want help?” I muttered.

“No. You’ll just make it take longer when I have to tell you what to do.” She opened the rest of the windows to air the place out.

I turned back to the TV. She left the room. I managed to wait until she was in the kitchen before I smiled. I knew she was good in bed, but I hadn’t known until that morning how tough she was. I liked her a little more all the time.

***

“Is there any actual food around here, or do you go to the corner store for everything?”

It was three hours since we got home from the store, and she was starting to wear on my nerves. I knew that was what she wanted, though, to see me lose my shit. So I smiled up at her from the couch. It was almost lunchtime—I knew she would ask sooner or later.

“Do you see food? I don’t have a hidden fridge anywhere, if that’s what you mean.”

“So, what? Can we order something? Or should I go out and get something?”

“Right. I’ll let you go out and get something from the store. That’s a great idea.” I rolled my eyes. “You think I was born yesterday.”

“Listen.” She crouched down in front of me. I could smell her perfume, still in her hair and on her skin from the night before. “I’m here of my own free will. I came because I need the money. You’re not holding a gun to my head and I haven’t gotten the money yet, so it’s not like I’m going to run away. I don’t intend to go home without it.”

She was so close I could have reached out and pulled her onto the couch with me. I kept my hands to myself.

“I’m not satisfied with you yet.”

“I know. Which is why I’m here. There are a million other things I could be doing.”

“Such as?”

“Such as taking care of my dying mother, jerk.”

That shut me up. I turned away, back to the TV. She stood and went back to her work. I picked up the phone to order lunch.

I knew it wasn’t right to keep her the way I was, knowing that the money was for her dying mother, but I wanted her for myself. As soon as I let her go, I’d never see her again. There I was, when I bought her, thinking one night would be enough. It would never be enough. Even when she pissed me off and threw her temper around, I wanted her. I only wanted her more and more, really.

When lunch came, she ate alone at the kitchen table. I left her there. If she wanted to sulk, she could sulk. I’d binge watch a little TV and leave her to her bitchy attitude. Even so, I couldn’t help taking a look in the kitchen every minute or two just to see what she was doing.

***

By the end of the day, the house was cleaner than it was when I first came home. I was impressed, and I told her so. There was no sarcasm or snark in my voice. I meant it. I didn’t think she’d finish, but she proved me wrong.

She was too exhausted to care.

“I need a shower,” she said, getting up from the sofa, where she collapsed after telling me the house was finally clean.

“I don’t know if I have any clean towels,” I said as she walked away.

“I washed them already.” Her voice was flat, low. Like she couldn’t care less about anything. She felt like a slave. And she was desperate enough to take care of her mother than she would clean my entire house instead of telling me to fuck off. That told me a lot about her.

I heard the water running upstairs and my cock stirred again. This time, I let it go, thinking about what she looked like in the shower. Naked, with the water running down over her body. I remembered the way her body felt under my hands, and imagined what it would feel like to touch her wet, slick skin.

I was straining so hard against the zipper of my jeans, I was sure I’d have an imprint of it on my cock. I couldn’t just pull it out, though. Instead, I stroked myself through my jeans, eyes closed, thinking about her. How I would soap her up. How I would run my hands over her tits, test their weight in my hands, stroke them until her nipples stood out. I pressed my lips together and breathed deeply through my nose.