Truth and Humility (28 page)

“If you can’t pay my price, you may as well not even touch me.”

But the price was way too steep.  He could live without other women, he had been for weeks.  Melanie was all he wanted at the moment.  He could admit that, d aRoman">be perfectly fine with it.  Hell, he even felt good about it.  But what about later?  After he professes an undying love?  She’d have him by the gonads then, and he’d be helpless to defend himself when her time came to move on, tearing off a good portion of his balls in her haste to leave.

No.  He couldn’t do it again.  In a last ditch effort to change her mind, he dropped his hand to the bedspread, looked around her room.  “If you want me to yourself, babe, I’m good with that.  Not particularly keen on the idea of sharing you, either.”

“But, do you love me?”

Shit.  How did he know that wouldn’t be enough?  He looked down at his crotch, noted the boner she’d purposefully worked up and he swore under his breath.  “Dammit, Mel, your cruelty knows no bounds!”

Cruelty.  Ha!  Well, she had her answer, didn’t she?  “Just get out,” she replied dejectedly.  “Let someone else take care of that for you.”

And then she’d slammed the door in his face.  Golden-brown eyes scanned the road through sunglasses as he drove through town.  It would serve her right to do just that...take his unsatisfied needs to the river, hang out with the group he knew was there, scaling crags and swapping stories and bodily juices around the campfire.  ’Twas a sure thing he’d get someone to take care of him there.  Yep, they were a randy bunch, which was why he was so adamantly against any of the guys getting close to his sister.

His other hand took the wheel when his phone rang on the seat beside him.  The screen told him it was Danny.

“If you’re going to ask me about joining the group tonight, the answer’s no.”  He wasn’t about to let her interfere in his night of sex play.  Way too awkward.

“If I felt like it, I’d be there already.”

He didn’t like the tone, didn’t like that he couldn’t order her around anymore.  “Then, what do you want?”

“Janice just called.  She’s worried about Mel.”

“And why would she be?”  Melanie was at home.  He’d left her there a half hour ago.

“Because she’s acting weird.  In Janice’s words ‘more slutty than usual.’  I thought you could at least stop by Jake’s and make sure she’s okay.”

“Jake’s!  What the hell...”  It was a nasty place filled with nasty people...and very horny men.  Janice – Mel and Danny’s mutual friend – bartended there on weekends.

“Look,” Danny purred in his ear, “if you don’t go, I will.  I haven’t seen her since the night I got worked over, but if she’s still feeling bad about it...”

“The hell you will!”  His sister getting pawed at in a joint like Jake’s?  Forget it.  “Just hang tight, I’m tuigh"+0rning around.”

“Figured you would.”

Danny was still raw from their argument earlier that day.  He could hear it in her voice, noted how she’d already disconnected the call.  The little shit.

He cut the wheel hard.  Tires screamed, but he was cool as a cuke as he punched the clutch, shifted into first and leaned into the illegal u-turn.  The engine roared while the rear end fishtailed nicely before gripping the asphalt once again.

What the hell, nobody was around.  That always beckoned a dramatic traffic violation as far as he was concerned.  Many a folk had white-knuckled the dash when he’d pull something like that, but for him it was the only way to test the limits of his ride.

Derek blew through the door, looked around until his eyes adjusted to the dim, smoky interior.  Grunge rock blasted the place and a handful of patrons lined the bar, a few at the tables.  A familiar shriek pricked his ears.  He swore under his breath when Melanie’s blond head appeared above the others.

She was smiling down at some brute who’d just plunked her onto the bar.  Wearing an obscenely short pleated skirt, her velvety thighs were bared to roaming hands.

When she spotted him cutting through the bar, her face fell.

Was he really ruining her day that much?

“Get down.”  His tone demanded obedience.

The curt command only pissed her off.  Rufus, or Rudy, or whatever his name was, made a full body turn and faced Derek with an amused once-over.  “Hey, short-shit.  Take the long road.”

Undaunted, Derek’s eyes never strayed from Melanie’s and he held out his hand.  She didn’t take it.  “I’m not letting you do this,” he said finally, aware of Janice’s wide-eyed stare as she dried glasses behind the bar.  The women were what he focused on.  The meathead in front him, not so much.

“Look you little...”

It took one elbow to the jaw.  The man went down like a sack of spuds.  Dirty pool, Derek thought, but he wasn’t in the mood to listen to the spiel.  “Thanks, Janice,” he said, and took both of Melanie’s wrists.  Her mouth was still open as he pulled her down, her bare cheeks squeaking against the polished surface of the bar.

“What did you do?” Melanie breathed, her neck twisting as she continued to gape at the body on the floor.  The guy was so big...

But Derek didn’t answer as he dragged her out the door and through the parking lot.  No, he was much too livid to interact with her just yet.  Fucking high heels and a skirt like that...it’s a wonder she hadn’t been gang-banged in the first five minutes.

Not bothering to load her through the passenger side, Derek opened his door and fois five minutrced her behind the wheel where she obediently scooched to make room.

She was brooding, arms crossed under ample breasts when the engine roared to life.  “That wasn’t very nice,” she snapped, still concerned for the guy whom she’d stepped over in the bar.  “The least you could do is give him fair warning that you’re stronger than you look.”

Derek sawed his teeth together, reached for the sunglasses on the dash as he steered out of the lot and directly into the setting sun.  Why he was so damned angry he didn’t know.  Melanie was her own woman, always had been.  Why shouldn’t he let her pimp herself out to any blowhard with a penis?

The Challenger sailed toward her neighborhood, entered a baron stretch of two-lane highway that bridged one suburb with another.

“I’m not going home.”  No answer yet again and Melanie didn’t appreciate the silent treatment.  Not when she was the one being wronged.  “My car is still at Jake’s.”

“You should have thought about that before you left your apartment.”

“Derek Bennett, you can just kiss my ass!”

To his utter shock, she reached for the door handle.  His instep mashed the brakes so hard, the Challenger came to a choked stop on the shoulder and died.  By the time he’d set the emergency brake, she was huffing it on foot back toward town.

“Melanie!”

She didn’t bother to turn around.  He was following her, probably strutting in those sunglasses and tight jeans, but for all she cared he could get back in his pony car and go fuck himself.

She only made it twenty feet before she was hoisted up from behind and carried under his arm with her head toward the rear.  Wind blew up her skirt exposing her thong to any traffic that might drive by.  “Derek, put me down!”

“You didn’t mind baring your ass in public a minute ago.”

He opened the passenger door, cursed when her high-heel put a scratch in the paint.  “You’re pushing it, Mel!” he thundered, delivering a stinging slap to her behind that only made her struggle more with outrage.  Unwilling to risk the shoes again, he threw her down across the warm hood and gathered her hands behind her back.  She was bent over in a most arousing position, her bottom half covered with little more than floss and a band of pleated plaid.  Her long, silken hair fanned out over the scoop, and she screamed in frustration, kicked.  Derek wedged his legs in between hers in order to keep the jewels from taking a hit.

He leaned over, covered her body with his.  “Are we going to calm down?”

“I hate you!”

“I thought you loved me.”

“You’ll never hear me say it again!”

“And you’ll never hear me say it at all.”

“Then, leave me alone!”

“So you can spread your legs for some idiot in a shit-hole like Jake’s?”  Baring his teeth with purpose, he reached around and slipped his hand inside the front of her thong, pushed his fingers into her moist channel and gripped her hard.  Her head came up on a gasp then dropped back down to loudly impact with the hood.

“Fuck your price, Mel,” he growled.  “When it comes to this, I’m all you’ll ever need. 
I
know it. 
You
know it.”  His fingers slid in and out of her while his palm stroked her expertly.  He knew her body so well, was able to control her desire as if he held a remote.  When Melanie began to mewl beneath him he backed off, let her squirm.  “Tell me what you want.”

“Derek, we’re on the side of the road!” she panted, opening for him wider.

“You love it,” was his response, the thrill of the moment gripping him just as hard.  His fingers resumed a slow rhythm, just enough to taunt her with what she was denying herself if she refused him.  “You see, I know what you like.  No one else will ever understand you the way I do.  Now, tell me what you want,” he repeated through clenched teeth.

“Derek, please!”

“Say it!”

“I want
you!
”

In an act of triumph, Derek increased his pressure and speed.  “Come for me, Mel,” he groaned.  When she screamed out a violent orgasm he felt her vagina close tightly around his fingers and it was too much.  Desperate with need, he released her hands, unzipped his jeans.  To hell with traffic, they’d deal with it if it came.

Melanie lay draped over the hood, taking in air and recovering when she felt her thong snap from her hips.  The stringy panties slithered uselessly down one leg to settle around her ankle.  Derek pushed inside her with such force she moaned in shock.

After one recuperative moment, he pulled out and slammed into her again...and again...each powerful stroke taking them both down a path of wild abandonment.  He gathered her hair up and wound it around his fist, pulling hard and lifting her upper body for better access to her breasts.   His other hand reached into her blouse, found she wasn’t wearing a bra.  It only made him more determined to keep her out of bars like Jake’s.  Never again.  Whether she accepted it or not, she would never again let anyone else do this to her.

“Oh, God!”  Melanie’s high-pitched prayer sang through the hills as she took his thrusts in deep, her body moving in time over the car.  Her insides began to draw up once again.

Derek felt her tighten around him and a sound began a sumph, Delow in his sternum, grew with his building release.  They came together in an astonishing gut-wrencher that nearly blinded him with a mixture of ecstasy and pain.  His fierce roar was coupled with a tightening hold on her hair that made Melanie gasp with delight.  As was the norm, he spilled everything inside her, drove it in as deep as he could.

She was always struck at how much he filled her, how complete she was when they were joined.  His body dropped, forearms impacting heavily with the hood on each side of her head.  His breath warmed her cheek.

“That...was
so
unfair,” she panted, though a smile played at her lips.

Derek squinted his eyes to clear the mud from his brain.  Damned if he’d ever be able to see straight again.  “Yes, it was.  Remember that next time you want to try it on me.”

Oh, yeah...  She’d forgotten about that.  “I didn’t know it would make you so mad,” she breathed.  “But I think I need to be taught another less – ”

He shushed her.  His eyesight still hadn’t recovered, but his ears still worked.  “Car’s coming,” he said and was off and out of her so fast she squeaked.  Before she could attempt a dignif
ied entry, he lifted her bodily from the hood, opened the car door and stuffed her into the passenger seat.

The only thing the passing family of four saw was him hiking up his zipper as he circled around the back of the car.

Just when Melanie began to worry over the mess she was making on his vinyl, he opened his door and slid in beside her.  One hand on the ignition, the other draped over the wheel, he sent her a half-smile that quickened her heart.  “Now, let’s go back to your place and do that again.”