Chapter 15
Ethan
I felt her chest heave up and down as she breathed slowly. She was in a deep sleep. I smiled, knowing I wore her out. I looked at her naked body, curled in a ball while she slept.
She was beautiful. Just looking at her stirred the desire still buzzing in my body as we lay naked next to each other. If she woke up and decided she wanted to go another round, I could. I could feel my cock tensing just from the thought. Her soft, round cheeks were pressed right against me. If I wanted to, I could slip into her delicious body and wake her with sex. As if she could read my mind, she shifted her body and nestled in closer to me.
I felt like I could watch her sleep all night. Something in my chest clenched and I realized I’d never done with a woman what I did with Molly. That was something I’d never felt. Her presence was physically comforting and I wanted to do nothing more than sleep next to her, but my mind was working overtime, thinking about her and how this would all play out. It was preventing me from sleeping. It was like I was on drugs again, only this time, the drug wasn’t in a Ziploc bag. It was wrapped in these sheets.
I slid from the bed and sat on the edge, head in my hands. My hands itched and I felt like I needed to be in the garage. I stood quietly to put my jeans back on and wandered through the house. When I first came in, I was too busy with her body to pay attention to the décor.
Her house was modern, similar to other houses in Arizona. Tan walls, red lamps, and black decorations. Her floorplan was open and standing at the bedroom door, I could see almost every other room in the house.
It was obvious she didn’t play video games or have any frequent male visitors. No video games or piles of movies. Just the TV, a couch, and an end table. Her kitchen was both functional and girly. Her curtains had flowers on them and on the counter was a bowl of fruit. She had a Keurig, several bottles of wine, and colored towels hanging from the oven rack. I couldn’t see into her bathroom past the ceramic tiles on the floor and the red shower curtain.
There was a door on the side of the kitchen and I imagined it went to the garage we passed on the way in. I found the light switch on the inside panel of the cement walls. Her garage was a lot like mine, but smaller. On one side were cardboard boxes, stacked almost to the ceiling. I imagined there were probably Christmas decorations and other shit like that that you couldn’t throw away but you have no actual place for.
The left side of her garage had been set up as a small workstation. She wasn’t working on all types of cars and bikes so her tool section could be smaller. She had a workbench and several things hanging in columns and rows from nails on the wall. There were some on the floor, spilling out of a red toolbox beside a bike missing its front wheel. It sat on a cement block, though its wheel sat beside it on its side. I walked closer and saw that the paint job was all scratched up. The inside was missing. The engine lay out on the floor on a blanket; lined beside it were several parts, as if Molly had dissected her bike.
I sat on the short stool sitting beside her bike and picked up my favorite tool. The wrench. I figured I’d check on what was inside and if it was all right, start putting her bike back together. I lost myself in the task and my hands moved on their own. My muscles were relaxed and even though I was at Molly’s garage, I felt like I was home.
“What are you doing?”
I heard her soft voice from the entrance of the garage. She was standing there like a small child, sleepy and draped in my t-shirt.
“Working.”
“Mind if I help you?” I could tell by the tone of her voice that she thought I might say no.
“Of course not. You live here.”
She pulled a stool to sit beside me. “How long have you been in here?”
I glanced at the clock that hung on her wall.
“A little over an hour.”
“Couldn’t sleep?” she asked, laying her head on my shoulder and I shook my head. We sat looking at her bike.
“Is this the bike you crashed?”
“Yup.”
I could tell from the make and the year that it was older.
“And you left it untouched all these years?”
“Yeah. I put it in storage at first and then when I got settled, I moved it here.”
Her bike had been through a lot, just like she had. From moving places to feeling abandoned and coming back home.
“Why do you still have this?” I asked in between the silence and the tinkering noises I made as I finished screwing on her muffler.”
“Because I was hoping to one day ride it again. All broken things can be fixed. At least that’s what I keep telling myself.”
I could hear what she was saying, the parallel of her bike and her body. “You’re not broken.”
“I’m not?”
“No. You’re not something anyone has to fix. Just love. You just needed a little love.”
“Is that what you’re giving me?” It was a heavy question, and a loaded one. Then she asked something even more incriminating. “Do you love me?”
I could have lied. But I didn’t. Deep down, inside myself, I already knew the answer to this question. I loved her. I knew that from the moment I saw that ugly skull on her head and I was willing, for a second, to say fuck it and be with her anyway.
“I do.”
She must not have expecting me to be so honest. She dropped her wrench and it loudly clanged against the floor.
“At least that’s what I told my mom,” I said, shrugging.
“What does that mean?”
“It means for once, I’m taking my mother’s advice. She asked me if I love you and I told her the truth – like I’m telling you. I do.”
“And what does that mean?” she asked, suddenly obtuse and needing over simplification.
“It means I won’t leave you when you’re acting insane. It means I like you when your hair is perfect and when it looks like you’ve been royally fucked. I think you’re beautiful naked and when you wear heels. I don’t care that you have scars and you sometimes cohort with trash named Skulls. I don’t care. I love you. It’s ridiculous and I shouldn’t. In my head, I know I’m breaking all the rules, but in my heart, I don’t care. I love you.” I took a deep breath and smirked, “Plus, everybody knows rules are meant to be broken.”
She giggled and threw herself onto me. “I love you too,” she said before kissing me softly. She pulled back to see my face and smiled demurely. “You love me,” she sung.
“That I do,” I said, kissing her nose before pulling her into my arms tightly and tucking my head over her shoulder. “And our first priority is getting this tattoo removed,” I said, biting her neck.
She squealed and nodded. “Yes, sir. No problem.”
What I needed to do tallied in my mind, compiling a list to somehow fix the blowout that would come from this. I needed to call a meeting and tell the crew what I was doing. They couldn’t find out from anybody but me. I was dating the Skull’s president’s daughter, and even though she wanted nothing to do with the monster, there might be some blowback on everyone. All’s fair in love and war, and truthfully, I didn’t give a shit what happened as long as Molly was on my arm.
*****
THE END