I needed to feel him. I needed to believe in what he was saying.

    I dragged his shirt from over his head and slid my hands along his firm chest. So stolid…he was a drug to me. I knew I shouldn’t have him but I couldn’t stop. There was a longing in me to go all the way this time.

    We were going to go all the way.

He breathed hard against the feeling of my palm on his chest, “My bed” he said with a heavy breath.

He grabbed my hand and I followed him to his bed ridding myself of my jacket in the process.

This time I would be in control.   

I was going to have my way with him, make him regret lashing out at me.

I pinned him to the bed forcefully, and I caught his mouth slightly ajar and in shock. “What’s wrong? Don’t like not being in control?”

     Catching his lips before he could speak, I gave him my own version of the addictive kisses he gave me. With my legs wrapped around his waist, I brought my tongue along his throat and to his chest, nibbling the firm skin along the way.

    He let out a quiet moan that made me shiver. Up until that point, I don’t think I ever heard him make such a sound.

    My hand made its way down his jeans, just over his manhood.

    Rock solid already.

    I whispered in his ear gently, “It’s my turn now.”

    Unfastening the buckle on his belt, we awkwardly fumbled together to bring the jeans down his legs. When it was my turn to take off my clothing, he did it so fast I had to pin him back down.

    He was eager, but this was his punishment.

    I hoisted my body over his rod, rubbing myself against him. “Fuck Jamie, you’re not going to do this to me, are you?” He winced and cheesed nervously.

    “You don’t get to decide what I’m doing today Forest. So shut up.” He gave me a toothy smile and laid back on the bed with his arms behind his head. It didn’t matter that he was getting a kick out of my attempt to be assertive.

I was going to enjoy this either way.

I rocked my hips against his body, grinding myself against him. He lifted his pelvis in motion with me and I stopped when he did.

“What?” He asked curiously.

“Don’t move.” His face turned flushed and I continued rocking against him.

If he was a railroad spike earlier, he was a piece of titanium now, and I wanted to taste it.

I slid down from his hips and postured myself over his arousal. Keeping my eyes fixating on him, I removed his boxers. With a firm grip over his sheath, I took him in my mouth as far as he could go.

And believe me, there was no way I was getting the full length if I tried.

“Fuck, Jamie…” He closed his eyes firmly, and I could feel myself getting wet just looking at his body tensing.

I bobbed my head and stroked him at the same time, feeling him growing restless.

If he was going to get satisfaction, so was I.

I pulled his rod from my mouth and hoisted myself back on to him. Hovering myself over the length of him, I slowly pressed him inside of me.

Everything went blurry.

I had control over the situation until he entered me.

He plunged himself upwards before I even had a chance to move.

I gave up. It felt so damn good, I wanted him to have his way with me.

“Forest, make me say your name,” the words barely made their way out of my mouth.

“Oh, I will.” He said sure as he could be, grabbing on to my waist and impaling me forcefully. There was no controlling the feeling of our hips against each other.

All night, he brought me to the edge over and over again. I was seeing stars every time I finished.

And somehow, he just kept going.

He felt every inch of me, for the first time.

I was mad for him. I wanted him and all his danger. And I got it.

 

When both of us were finally too tired to continue, I laid myself on him slick with sweat against his skin. He planted soft kisses on my forehead and caught his breath slowly.

“I guess I should piss you off more often huh?”

“If you’re ready to wear yourself out, big guy.” He laughed and my head rattled against his chest.

“I’m done, Jamie. I meant it. I’m giving up racing. I want to give myself to you. I’m putting that life behind me.”

I couldn’t believe he could sound so sincere. Up until this point I’d gotten used to him calling me “bug eyes” and being a general dick, but now, he was actually being somewhat endearing.

Shocker.

“I can’t afford for anything to happen to you Forest. Let’s grow the shop and get some kind of normalcy in our lives.”

“Does this mean you’re going back to making Frappes?”

Real funny Forest.

“No, it doesn’t not. Goodness, you’re a trip! It means let’s not do outrageously dangerous, crazy illegal stuff? Understood?”

“Yeah, yeah. I was just playing with you. You have my word. No more racing.”

We shook on it and I gave him a kiss...

I hoped he was telling the truth. I really did want him to stop. There was no way our relationship could continue if he kept racing.

“Got an idea I wanna run by you bug eyes.” He changed the subject abruptly.

“Shoot.”

“Why don’t you take me to that museum where they’re going to hang your work. Don’t think I ever actually saw the pieces.”

Wait a minute…he actually cared about my artwork?? No way. Was I dreaming? Did the prison guard hit him in the head really hard?

“You wanna see my paintings??” I tried to conceal my shock and failed miserably.

“Why’s that so shocking? You’re my girl. Course I wanna see what you up to.”

His girl. So it was finally official.

“Well if that’s the case, we can go tomorrow. And I don’t want to hear you whining about being bored when we get there.” He laughed wrinkling his sexy face and nodded his head as much as he could while laying down horizontally.

    “You’ll enjoy it, I promise.”

    “Anything with your name on it will be enjoyable for me.”

    We stared at each other for a little while before we quickly pulled the bedsheets over our heads and went at it again.

    At this rate, neither of us were getting any sleep.

    ***

    Of course, I picked a dreadfully crowded day to take Forest to the Vox Museum. We took nearly twenty minutes alone to find a parking spot!

    “Damn, you would think some celebrity was making an appearance here. People are that much of art nuts?” I glared at him and he folded his lips. “Sorry.”

    “Bad boy” Forest was learning quickly.

    We finally found a spot and made our way inside the museum.

    “Alright, I don’t know anything about heart. So you’re going to have to help me understand how some of this shit in here counts as it.” He was so damn hot but so uncultured.

    Le sigh.

    “How about we start from my collection? Delvin said it’ll be in the third corridor on the ground level.”

    “English please?”

    “Oh brother…just follow me baby.”

    “Forest Lock. Long time no see brother.” We turned around to meet the deep voice that called Forest’s name.

    “Fate Hatton? Holy Shit! What the hell are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in New York with Valor?” They gave each other a fist bump and Fate shook my hand.

    When I saw him back at the shop, I thought he was an ass. Grade A.

    But he sure seemed nice enough now.

    “Actually, we’re here checking out some art for our collection.” He gave Forest a scruffy wink and I just stood there lost. But if he had an art collection, he had to have known something about art…right?

    “Find any pieces here that you like?” I decided I would test him for fun.

    “Yeah. There’s this little collection of blue paintings in the third corridor down there. I think I like those. Done by Judy Jordie, or something like that.”

    Was he talking about me?

    He was definitely talking about me.

    “Umm, Mr. Hatton, do you mean Jamie Jordan? That would be me.” He jerked his body back in surprise, and gave a husky laugh.

    “This your girl Forest? Those paintings are hers?”

    “Yeah. She is pretty good eh? Her work is in pretty high demand nowadays.”

    A pleasant lie that. But I didn’t see any reason to correct him. If Forest’s friend was going to cough up the money to pay for one of my paintings, great!

    “Hmm, well I think I’ll have to tell Valor about this. Hey Jamie, I’ll be in touch. Here’s my number.” He handed me a small paper with his number scribbled on it. I felt like I’d finally made it to the big leagues. All so suddenly…

    Fate dispersed into the crowd of people in the museum and I dragged Forest to the corridor where my three paintings were.

    “Babe look! There’s a ton of people over here looking at my stuff!” I clenched on to his arm and fought my legs from kicking up and down. This was so unreal.

    Forest walked to each painting and took a good look at them. He tilted his head to the side back and forth, studying the work. I knew he really didn’t know what to look for, but it was amusing watching him try to pretend.

    “Hey Jamie, what made you want to paint this stuff. It’s blue. It seems…sad? I don’t know.” He placed his hand on his firm jawline and rubbed them together.

    “Sad? Oh, don’t read into it too much Forest!” I ran my hand across his back trying to brush off his observation.

    But the truth was, I was sad when I painted those.

    Empty.

    No meaning in life.

    I was stuck in a dead-end job and missing out on the opportunity to live my dreams. The brush strokes on the canvas were the only way to get my voice out. So maybe- maybe that is why they’re all blue.

     I figured that now, I wouldn’t need to cry in my artwork anymore.

    I had Forest.

    “Whatever you say Jamie. They sure as hell look sad to me. But then again, I know fuck all about art.”

    Grabbing my waist, he held me close to him as we watched the hoard of people who came to admire my work.

    “I’m proud of you. Keep it up bug eyes.” He planted a soft kiss on my forehead and rubbed my shoulder.

   

***

    “It’ll be a busy day at the shop tomorrow Jamie, make sure you get enough sleep.” We made it back to Forest’s apartment after the long day out. I was beyond worn out, and working at the shop was the last thing I wanted to talk about at the moment.

    “Can I take a day off babe? I’m beat!” I plopped my tired body on the couch and draped my arm over my eyes.

    “Nope. No can do. You work for me now. And that means work every day.” He sat down on the couch next to me. “Don’t worry, I’ll let you finish redecorating the shop. That sound good?”

    “That sounds amazing.”

    I started to doze off as the weight of my eyes became too much to support.

 

 

    “You’re not going to change me. I am who I am.”

    “Are you seriously choosing this life over me? Did you ever even really love me?” He walked up to his car without sparing a word to me. “Don’t do it Forest! You said you wouldn’t!”

    “Who said I keep my promises? You were warned about me.”

    “Forest!!”

    Slamming the door behind him, he left me standing in a plume of exhaustion on the sidewalk.

    “Why are you doing this to yourself Jamie?” There was a wispy light voice that came up from behind me. Why did that voice sound so familiar?

    “Who are you!”

    “I’m Jamie.”

    I turned around and fixed my eyes on the shadowy figure before me. She looked like me, but I couldn’t quite make it out. Even though we were standing outside were the sun was visible everywhere, her body was still covered in shadow.

    “You’re Jamie??” My heart began to race.

    “I’m you. And I’m here to warn you for the second time. Forest Lock is dangerous Jamie. He’s going to hurt himself, and you.”

    “What are you talking about?! You don’t know anything about Forest! He said he would never do anything to hurt me ever again.” I plummeted to the floor, leaning my hands on my knees. The figure bent down before me and laughed.

    “Do you really believe him? What makes you think you’re worth all of the effort of him giving up his old life? He’s damaged and he will damage you.”

    A steady stream of tears rolled down my face. I wiped my cheeks and they became stained with crystal-like sparkles. “What is going on?”

    “You’re having a lucid dream Jamie. A very important one. Listen to me. Get away from Forest now or you will regret it.”

    “Shut up! I’m tired of listening to you!” I lunged at the figure and it dissipated into a cloud of black smoke.

    The world shrunk in on me like a fish eye lens.

    “I can’t move!!”

 

    “FOREST!!”

    He jumped, startled, and turned over on the bed to face me.

    “Babe?! What’s wrong?! What’s the matter Jamie?!!” He grasped on to my shoulders, his bare skin leaning against mine.

    I clenched my chest trying to grasp for air.

    Lightheaded…

    I felt so light headed…

    “Jamie?? Can you hear me?! Snap out of it!” He shook me repeatedly and I finally came to.

    “F-Forest? Oh my god.” I wiped the beads of sweat from my forehead and held on to him tight.

    “Was it a bad dream? Are you okay?”

    He was so concerned for me. My heart shuttered at the thought.

    “I’m alright, and it was just a bad dream…Gosh, I’m sorry for worrying you Forest.”

    “No, no, don’t apologize.” He held me close to his chest and rubbed my back. The warm faint scent of colon on his chest calmed me down.

    I don’t know why I had that dream and I don’t know what to make of it. I knew I could trust Forest.

    At least I believed him when he said he would never do anything to harm me ever again. Trust was more important than anything else.

    Putting that dreadful dream behind me, I got ready for work. When we were both dressed and fed, Forest drove us over to the shop. It was a slow day, and it gave me plenty of time to work on the wall paintings. But no matter how hard I tried to focus, I just kept thinking about that damned dream.

    Was it a warning?

    The front doorbell rung and a customer walked in.

    Mauve.

    It was that kid that got Forest in trouble! Who the hell did he think he was walking in here like that after what he did?!

    “Excuse me, you’re not welcome in here. I’m going to need you to turn around and leave please.”

    He laughed at me and adjusted the collar of his suit. What an arrogant prick.

    “I’m here to see Forest. I’m not here to talk to you. Now get him, will you?”

    “No I will not. I said you need to leave. Now.” I was standing my ground. There was no way I was going to let him hurt Forest anymore.

    “You’re awfully fucking stubborn huh? He’s already expecting me. Why don’t you go out back and get him.”

    “I’m right here.” Forest emerged from the back garage, his body covered in scuffs and oil from work. He motioned me behind him and I held on to his arm. “What do you want Mauve. Setting me up the other night wasn’t enough entertainment for you?”

    “Look Forest, I wanted to apologize for that. I’m an impressionable kid you know. The cops threatened me! I promise!” Suddenly his voice quivered and his eyes welled up. He sniffled and wiped his nose. Under normal circumstances, his act would be believable, but this kid was definitely a liar through and through.

    “You really expect me to believe that shit kid? You worked with them willingly because you had a grudge. I’d respect you more if you were a bit more honest.”

    “Forest, I’m not going to try to convince you because I know you tend not to believe anyone. I just wanted to say sorry…”

    This kid was really working the heartstrings. I felt relieved that Forest wasn’t buying it.

    “Apology accepted. Now get out.”

    “Alright, I will. Just make sure you check your phone later. I sent you a very important text. Please read it.” He continued wiping his eyes on his way out.

    That was strange.

    “What was that all about Forest? Do you believe a word coming out of his mouth?”

    “Not at all. Mauve set me up with the police. My Subaru’s tires are fucked and I’m down fifty grand. Why should anything that little half-wit says be believed?” He clenched his fists and tightened his muscles.

    “Forest, go back to the garage. I can handle it out here okay?”

    “Yeah. If you see that little asshole making his way back over here, lock the door. You understand me?”

    “I will.”

    Huffing forcefully, he walked back to the garage to finish working on the day's appointments.