Own the Wind (19 page)

The bad news was they expected me to sign a twelve-month lease. I was down with that, kind of. I needed someplace to stay at the present moment and, with my job in the air, I was kind of stuck staying where I was rather than apartment hunting and explaining how I’d pay rent if I didn’t have income. That said, I felt it might be time to move onto something a tad bit nicer, and if they’d switch to month-to-month and I got my employment sorted, I’d have the opportunity to do that in the not-too-distant future.

Shy wasn’t down with it, like,
at all
.

Although I’d asked Shy for time to get my stuff straightened out, which would give the brothers time to reconnect without my listening ear, Shy had refused to give it to me. This kinda freaked me out, because it pissed me off and I was confronted yet again, in less than twenty-four hours, with the balancing act I had to perform to be with a biker.

At least that was what I thought until Shy explained it to me.

“Waited for you for four years, Tabby, baby.
Four.
Spent a lot of that time thinkin’ I’d never have you. Now I got you, not even for a day, I’m not big on lettin’ you go. Give me that for now, yeah? Make your calls here.”

That was sweet as well as loving, so I gave him that.

We quickly hit another danger zone when he heard me talking on the phone about the lease.

I knew he didn’t like what he was hearing when he pulled my phone out of my hand, muttered into it, “She’ll call you back,” then his finger hit the screen and he looked at me.

Feeling pressure building in my head at this maneuver, I opened my mouth to, say, maybe,
scream
, but he beat me to speaking.

“A twelve-month lease is not gonna happen. Your place is okay but only okay,” he declared. “It’s too small, I’m not thrilled about the ’hood it’s in, and this works, babe, we’re movin’ on together and no way it’s big enough for us both. I’m not waitin’ out a twelve-month lease. I’m not puttin’ up with what I don’t want for twelve months. And I don’t want you in a place that’s not good enough for you for twelve months. So you are not stayin’ there for twelve months. Tell them month-to-month. If they flinch, they deal with me.”

I didn’t like the sound of that, but in order not to have words with him in front of his brother, I did as I was told. They flinched. Shy heard it, took the phone from me again, I glared at him then glared at his smiling brother who was privy to all this, seeing as we were back at Shy’s place, and then I listened to Shy try and reason with them.

This didn’t work so Shy said in the phone, “Right. You’ll be seein’ me in thirty minutes and I suggest you take that time to think real hard on that decision.”

Then he tossed my phone to me, muttered, “Be back,” and took off before I could say word one.

I stared at the door that closed behind him wondering how he would know how to find my landlord.

Then I stared at the door trying to convince myself that didn’t just happen.

Then, when I realized that did just happen, I tamped down the urge to throw something at the door.

Then I stabbed at my phone and called Shy.

I did this repeatedly.

He didn’t answer for forty-five minutes and when he did, his greeting was, “Got month-to-month, babe. Tell Lan to load you up in his truck. I’m makin’ steaks tonight at your place. Meet me at King Soopers on Colorado Boulevard.”

Then he hung up on me.

Yep. Hung. Up. On. Me!

Apparently he used his badass biker ways to find my landlord and strong-arm a month-to-month lease out of him. Although this was what I wanted, contradictorily, the way Shy made it come about (specifically my nonparticipation in that), didn’t make me happy.

Lan didn’t chime in until I was fuming in his truck. “Let him do what he’s gotta do.”

I kept my mouth set and my eyes out the side window.

“Tabby, seriously, listen to me,” Lan carried on. “He’s my big brother and a long time ago, he cast himself in the role of protector and he’s good at it. He was scary capable of taking shit and giving it, just as long as he saved me from havin’ to do either. He gets off on this crap. Let him do it.”

I didn’t like the sound of that but I let that part go. I’d talk to Shy about that later.

Instead, I turned to look at Lan. “He can’t go around threatening and intimidating everyone in my life to get me what I want or what he wants me to have.”

Lan grinned at me and replied jauntily, “Sure he can.”

I glared at him.

“Bet your dad does that shit,” Lan went on. Dad did, for me, Rush, Ty-Ty, any of his brothers, anyone he gave a crap about.

God.

I was screwed.

On the ride to King Soopers, I decided to let this go and fight another day. Today needed to be a good day for everybody and anyway, month-to-month worked for me and I doubted Shy stuck my landlord with a knife, so I decided that all’s well that ends without bloodshed.

We got groceries. We had steaks. We drank beer. Lan took off to crash at Shy’s place. I explained to Shy that while he was off terrorizing my landlord, I’d called the hospital and learned they’d already advertised my position so if I wanted it back, I had to apply for it.

His response was, “They’ll pick you, baby.”

Then he picked me, as in picked me up, and carried me to the bedroom.

Commence making love which led us to now.

I broke the silence with a soft, “You… in my bed.”

I closed my eyes when Shy tightened his arms around me and stayed that way, but he said nothing. Then again, the arm thing said it all.

“I’m glad your brother’s back,” I mumbled into his skin, and he gave me another squeeze.

“Me too.”

“It was cool how he surprised you,” I noted.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

I pulled in breath. Then I stated, “Just for the record, before you go off to play biker badass on something that affects me, I’d prefer it if we talked about that thing that affects me first. There were other ways to solve today’s problem. If we decided month-to-month was the way to go and they didn’t give it to me, I could have stayed with Dad and Tyra or Natalie until my life got back on track and I found a place I liked or, if we were there when that time came, we found a place we wanted.”

“My way was faster and less headache,” he replied.

Crap, he had a point.

I sighed.

His body shook, I knew he was silently laughing but I ignored that.

Then he murmured, “Slide off me, Tabby, but do it slow. I like it like that.”

That gave me a tingle, but instead of sliding off, I thought about why he needed me to, which was so he could go to the bathroom and deal with the condom.

“I’m on the pill,” I told him quietly.

His arms gave me another squeeze but this one felt reflexive, so I lifted up to look down at him.

Then I pulled in another breath and started carefully, “Before, were you—?”

He didn’t make me finish.

He quickly cut me off with another squeeze of his arms, the pressure not releasing, before he stated firmly, “Always.”

“So we can—?”

He again interrupted me to order gently, “Slide off, honey.”

I held his eyes a beat before I nodded then I slid off, slowly, watching his face as I did, which stated eloquently he liked the feel just as much as I did.

Once I’d slid him out of me, he rolled me to my back, leaned in to kiss my chest and then the underside of my jaw, then he gave me a sexy smile then he rolled off the bed.

By the time he sauntered back into my room naked, I was standing by the side of the bed and had on a pair of undies but had yet to get to the nightie. I didn’t get a chance to locate one before Shy had me back in bed with him on top of me, his face serious.

“Right, we’ll do this quick and hopefully not painful,” he began ominously. “For three months, it’s only been Rosalie. The month before that, nobody. I didn’t lie, babe, always careful.
Always.
But I’m gonna get tested so you know I’m givin’ you nothin’ but me when it’s only you and me with nothin’ in between. We’ll wait for the results and then it’ll be just you and me. You cool with that?”

I was, totally. It was way beyond what I expected he’d do without me even asking and it made me feel safe in more ways than knowing making love with him would be safe.

“Thanks, Shy,” I whispered.

“You’re welcome, Tabby,” he whispered back.

I grinned.

Shy kissed me.

Ten minutes later, my panties were gone.

Two hours later, I passed out on top of Shy, sated, exhausted, relaxed as all get out.

And happy.

Three and a half weeks later…

“Shy, oh my
God
.
Shy!
” I cried, my hands, curved around the edge of the kitchen counter, went to his head between my legs. His hands cupping my behind pulled me deeper into his ravenous mouth. My head flew back, slammed into the elevated bar and I came really, freaking
hard
.

Still coming, I barely processed losing his mouth from between my legs but I didn’t miss his cock slamming into me.

I lifted my head and tried to focus on his face, seeing it hard, his eyes burning on me, his cock slamming fast, hard, deep.

Mostly, Shy made love to me, managing the unbelievable task of doing this even when it was wild monkey sex.

Now, he was fucking me.

It was
fantastic
.

“You’re comin’ for me again, Tabby,” he grunted, thrusting deep.

“Okay,” I breathed.

His hands were spanning my hips, yanking me to him as he drove inside me, so he ordered, “Watchin’ you do it, baby. Touch yourself.”

No hesitation, I yanked up the nightie I had on, the only thing I was wearing since it was morning. Shy and I had been shuffling around the kitchen getting coffee and I’d licked my lip for some reason. My tongue barely made the pass before his mouth slammed down on mine then I found my ass on the counter, my panties gone, my man’s mouth between my legs and myself coming.

And there I still was. Happily.

I put one finger to my clit. I shoved up my nightie and put my fingers to my nipple.

“Nightie up, Tab. Wanna see what you’re doin’ to your tit,” he growled. My belly dipped, my sex spasmed, he pounded deeper, and I stopped what I was doing at my breast, pulled my nightie further up and showed him what I was doing.

“Fuck, honey,” he groaned, slamming in deep then rolling his hips in a way that made a moan slide up my throat, his eyes never leaving me. “Fuckin’ hot. Gorgeous.”

“Shy,” I whispered, close again, the first one huge, this one felt like it might kill me and I didn’t care.

“You wait for me,” he growled, going faster, driving deep.

“I can’t,” I whimpered, it was nearly over me.

His voice was rough when he gritted, “Wait for me, baby.”

“I—”

Suddenly his hands weren’t at my hips. He’d wrapped his arms around me, lifted me clean off the counter and I flew through the air a moment before my body collided with his and he slammed me down on his cock.

My head flew back and I cried out as the wave crashed over me even as I felt Shy bury his face in my chest and groan into my skin.

Lifetimes passed as I whirled under the surface, Shy right there with me. Then, when we were floating up, he gently laid me back on the countertop, his hand cupping the back of my head so it cushioned me when I hit bar.

I tipped my chin to look at him and saw him grinning down at me.

“Jesus, sugar, you gotta quit comin’ so fast. You’re killin’ me.”

My happy mojo took a hit and I glared at him.

“Uh… just pointing out, Shy, you’re the one who
makes
me come so fast.”

“I like that, babe, and I get it, my mouth between your legs in the morning after you’ve had a full eight hours without me takin’ you there, but right after I give it to you, you get there again before me? What the fuck?”

He was still grinning, which meant I knew he was teasing.

He was also teasing because he was pleased with himself and didn’t mind me knowing it, and this didn’t please me.

“You were fucking me hard,” I reminded him.

“Yeah, so?” He kept grinning at me.

“On the kitchen counter,” I carried on.

“And?”

“It was hot,” I snapped and watched his grin spread into a smile.

“Uh, I got that, Tab. You came, your pussy clenched around me so hard, I had no choice but to do the same. That sweet cunt of yours milked it right out of me.”

That pissed me off and turned me on, both in equal measure. I gave into the pissed-off part and I kept glaring before I tipped my head to the side and asked fake-sweetly, “Is this a problem?”

Still smiling, he opened his mouth to speak then his smile died completely, his head jerked up, eyes to the door, and before I knew what was going on, he pulled out, yanked me off the counter, set me on my feet, shoved me behind him, and his hands went to his jeans, the only thing he’d luckily pulled on earlier to shuffle around in the kitchen with me.

This was lucky because usually he only wore his boxer briefs and sometimes he wore nothing.

And Shy being in his jeans was lucky because at that very moment a key could be heard in the lock.

This could only be one of five people: Dad. Tyra. Rush. Big Petey. Or Natalie.

And none of those choices were good, because none of them knew about Shy and me.

Shy and I had talked about it, and we’d decided that the best course of action was for us to get used to being an us before we sprung it on anybody.

This was easy considering the guys were used to Shy spending time with me, and he’d begun to hang at his apartment in the final throes of his relationship with Rosalie, so they were also used to him not being at the Compound.

Somehow, they missed the fact that we’d had a month apart but I suspected this was because the brothers didn’t really stick their noses into each other’s business unless it was invited.

Shy did share around the Club he’d broken it off with Rosalie, but that was as much as either of us shared.

Of course, we had to modify our behavior when we were at the Compound together. Though sometimes, I had to admit, we exchanged looks, he would touch my behind, I’d run the tips of my fingers along the back of his hand, but still, we kept up the charade.