Chapter 17
Charity
The rich aroma of coffee dragged me the rest of the way up out of sleep. I opened my eyes to a paper cup being wafted under my nose next to a denim clad thigh.
“Peace offering,” Nothing said, holding out the cup to me.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Didn’t know what you liked, so I chanced it and got you my usual.”
“Which is?”
“Sugar free vanilla latte.”
“Gimme the real thing next time and you’re golden,” I said sitting up and taking the cup, sipping. “Although for no sugar, this ain’t half bad. What’re you doing in here?”
“Like I said, peace offering. That and the guys are already up and moving for another fun filled day of storm clean up. You ready?”
I groaned, “Let me finish caffeinating and figure out clothes and then I should be.”
He lowered his own cup from his mouth and swallowed, “Kay.”
“Charity, you okay?” Hope asked from the door, scowling at Nothing.
“He brought me coffee, it’s okay, he’s one of us,” I said in an attempt to diffuse any ugliness about to go down.
“He brought you coffee, but did he bring me any coffee? I’m the one he needs to be afraid of.”
“It was hard enough bringing two on the bike, and she’s technically the wronged party, so if you can hold off on the ire, I solemnly swear the next time I have access to my fucking cage I’ll spot you.”
Hope narrowed her eyes and pursed her mouth in her mock angry look, “I’ll let you get away with it this time,” she said and breezed down the stairs. Nothing shook his head.
“A real ball buster that one,” he muttered and I raised my eyebrows.
“Yeah, try being raised by her.”
He smiled and, oh my god, he was gorgeous when he did that. Deep smile lines appearing, miraculously, out of nowhere, etching themselves to either side of his lush mouth and framing it to perfection. I suddenly, very much so, had to resist the urge to grab him and pull that mouth to mine.
His smile faltered, “What is it?” he asked, and I felt myself blush deeply.
“Nothing, Nothing. Now why don’t you let a girl get dressed, and I’ll meet you and everyone else downstairs.”
“Okay,” he got up and leaned over, hesitating at first, before planting a swift, chaste, kiss on my lips. I blinked and he was gone. I looked down at the cooling coffee in my hands and drank some more of it before kicking the blankets off my legs and going for clothes. We had another long day ahead of us.
I ended up driving the first aid kit and like four of the guys across town to Hossler’s place. When we got there, she had a big square of the front lawn, all bright with sunlight, cleared of debris she’d pushed off to the side and was bringing canvas sacks out of her house, laying them out on the bare patch.
“Aw, hell no!” Trike cried from the back seat.
“Shut up, Prospect, and try not to be such a puss.” Stoker said laughing beside me. I looked over at him.
“What are they?”
“Snakes,” he answered and got out of my Jeep. The passenger seat was thrown forward and Trike, followed by Lightning and Gator, got out.
“I’m with Trike,” I muttered and got out too.
Hossler’s roof ended up needing repair. Nothing and Radar ended up spending most of the day up there fixing it, while I helped Hossler clean rat cages. It wasn’t glamorous work, but it was honest and with as many kids as Hossler had hanging around, both hers and the neighbors, she was appreciative of my assistance. Besides, the rats, unlike the snakes, were cute. I could handle one snake at a time, they were cool to look at, but Hoss had something like sixty or seventy. That was more than a bit much for me.
After Hossler’s and some talk, it was decided that was all there was room for, for that day and that the town cookout needed to happen to use the freezer food for the homes without generators before it went bad.
To the beach we went with a good three or four hours to go before sunset. I drove the guys to a storage unit around a half hour away so that they could get their motorcycles out and listened with a smile at their joyous sounds. Nothing had ridden, and he stood by smiling as the rest of the guys were reunited with their bikes. Hope went up to hers and hugged it. She’d ridden with Marlin, Faith, Cutter, and Pyro in Nothing’s beat up old Subaru wagon. Cutter and Pyro had been picked up at the marina, their work with and on the Reclaimer having been done for the day.
“You sure?” Marlin was asking Faith and she scoffed.
“I’m sure, I remember how to drive an automatic! I’ll be right behind you.”
I smiled at them as he kissed her fiercely.
“Let’s mount up!” Cutter called. Judging by everyone’s wide grins and animated talking, I think it was safe to surmise they’d all had a good day.
We went back to the marina, Faith in front of me in Nothing’s wagon, and in front of her, the long, double line of motorcycles, Hope just behind and to the left of Cutter, Marlin beside her.
It was both fun and a little strange to watch the hero’s welcome the guys got. Townspeople running to the curbs, waving and cheering, clapping at our arrival as we turned into the marina’s parking lot. People came forward to shake hands and welcome Cutter and the rest of the guys like we hadn’t just been gone an hour or so.
The edges of the marina’s lot were piled with temporary tables and barbecue grills. A bunch of the restaurant and bar owners manning them like the professionals they were, cooking up everything from chicken, to pork, to beef and even fish in some cases, to order. Salvaging what they could from defunct freezers.
Pyro had told me just about every place along the boulevard, and the town’s bed and breakfasts all had generators to power them through, but it was likely a fuel run would have to be put together for tomorrow if the power wasn’t restored tonight. Really it was the poorer and elderly folks of Ft. Royal that suffered when storms big enough to knock out power blew through.
I stood watching everything, smiling because I couldn’t help it, and wishing that the rest of America would get on board and start behaving like this one little Florida town. Even if just a neighborhood banded together like this in some of the bigger cities, what a difference could be made.
Someone tapped me on my shoulder and I turned to look on my right side, a laugh from my left drew me back around.
“Ah! You’re still here!”
“I am! I see you weathered the storm just fine, too,” Greg said.
I nodded, “It’s been interesting; that’s for sure.”
“You uh, here with anybody?” he asked, looking around at the mingling bikers and townspeople.
“No, not really. My sisters are with them, I just moved here to be with Hope and Faith.”
“I see, think I could maybe interest you in that drink?” he asked, and his expression was steeled for rejection.
I laughed, “I still feel like I’m ‘on duty’ so to speak, so would sharing a bit of food do?”
He smiled like he’d won the lottery, “Perfect! What’s your poison?” he asked.
“God there’s just so much to choose from! I don’t know,” he stuck out his arm gallantly and I looped mine through it.
Greg was funny, and light hearted, taking me on a tour of everything there was to eat with a faux French accent like he was some sort of snooty maître d’. We chose our food and he asked me, “So what have you been doing the last couple of days? Where’d you weather the storm?”
I didn’t quite know how to answer so I fudged it just a little, “Um, well, the guys have been working on some of the older folks’ homes, taking care of the disabled around Ft. Royal first, and I’ve been going along. I just graduated the advanced nursing program so I’ve been kind of putting the skills to good use, checking up on people. You know, the usual, blood pressure, oxygen stats, that sort of thing. Treating minor cuts and bumps, a sliver or two.” I bobbed my head in a nod, blushing furiously, feeling like I was rambling.
“No, that’s great! That’s fascinating, really. Congratulations on graduating. You out looking for a job?”
“Yeah, I’ve got some applications in at some of the area hospitals and doctors’ offices. I put a bunch in before I left to come down here. No call backs yet, but with everyone getting ready for the storm, and now cleaning up? I’m not really surprised. I’m sure I’ll start hearing back soon.”
“I’m sure you will,” he agreed with a dazzling smile.
It was nice talking to Greg. Easy in a way that wasn’t with Nothing. Things were so thick between Nothing and I, it made small talk awkward for the most part. Greg and I continued to make small talk until I spotted Nothing watching us, his gray eyes unreadable behind his wraparound Oakley’s. Radar said something to him and he turned, a scowl deepening his features and I felt bad. It seemed Radar and Nothing were having a fundamental difference of opinion with one another lately, and rather than finding resolution, they were just antagonizing each other. I sighed and smiled at whatever Greg was saying, even though I hadn’t heard a word.
“You haven’t heard a word I’ve said for the last couple of minutes, have you?” he asked and I felt my shoulders drop.
Busted.
“I’m so sorry, my mind is just wandering something terrible,” I said and sighed.
“No, no! Hey, it’s okay I get it. You’ve just moved here, big storm, now you’re helping put your town back together while it’s in pieces. It’s alright, I’m sure it’s been a really exhausting last couple of days for you.” Aw, why does he have to be so sweet and understanding? I thought to myself.
“It really has, and I’m right back at it tomorrow, too.”
“Tell you what, where’s your phone?” he asked. I pulled it out of my back pocket.
“Take this number, five-oh-four, five-five-five-, two-one-six-zero.” I dutifully punched it in and hit send, his phone rang a moment later. “I’ll call you in a day or two, and if you’re not busy, maybe we can meet up. My business here is almost over, but I like it here. I might stick around a few days extra, especially if I knew I might score dinner and drinks with a certain pretty girl.”
I laughed, “Okay, you win. I’ll try to call you.”
“Sound’s good, maybe in the meantime, I’ll see you around, Charity.”
“Yeah, maybe…” I agreed. He got up and with a nod, wandered off in another direction into the crowd.
Faith appeared and sat down next to me, “He looked cute,” she said with a faint smile, “Seemed nice, too.”
“Yeah, he is nice, easy to talk to…”
“But he doesn’t set your panties on fire like Nothing, or intrigue you, or flip any of your ‘I want to fix it’ switches,” she said nodding her head.
“Oh my god!” I gasped incredulous.
Faith shrugged, “I was sold into human trafficking; I didn’t die, and I’m probably more observant than I ever was, I’m just a lot quieter about it than I would have been before.” My sister shifted a bit uncomfortably.
“Therapist tell you to confront it and be open about it?”
“Yeah, it’s easier said than done, I don’t want to upset you,” she made a distressed face and I knocked my shoulder into hers.
“You say whatever you gotta say, Faith. I’m not judging you and if it makes me uncomfortable,” I shrugged a shoulder, “So what? I can live with that as long as it helps you. I’m just happy to have my favorite sister back.”
“I heard that!” Hope quipped and came up to sit on my other side.
“Neeah!” I made a childish sound and leaned away from Hope and into Faith; Faith laughed.
“Woah! Hold up! Need a picture of this,” Marlin cried and whipped out his phone. He framed the three of us up; all smiles, leaning into each other, plates of food in our laps and drinks in hand, and snapped a picture.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur of warmth, happiness, and such a feeling of family I don’t honestly think I’d ever experienced before. Not even when my family had been whole, with Mom, Dad, Hope, and Faith all living under the same roof, gathered around the same table. It was educational to say the least.
“You look tired,” Nothing’s voice startled me. I hadn’t realized he was there.
“It’s been another full day. I guess I’m out of shape, too much time on my ass studying.”
He chuckled and stood beside me, where I stood, watching bonfires light on the beach.
“I happen to like your ass,” he said so softly, really for only me to hear. I felt myself blush, then shiver.
“Thanks,” I murmured.
“Want me to take you back to the house?” he asked.
“What about your bike?”
He smiled, “Have a drink, relax a little longer, and hold that thought,” he said walking backwards towards the part of the parking lot loaded with bikes.
I laughed, and nodded, “Okay,” I agreed and he jogged a pace or two backwards before spinning and trotting into the throng of people. A moment later his bike fired up and I watched him pull out and down the street towards Cutter’s.
I did what he asked, I had another drink, and mingled with some of the MC and a woman named Miranda who ran one of the bed and breakfasts, an upscale one called the Nautilus. True to his word, Nothing returned, sidling up behind me to rest a warm hand at the small of my back.
“Ready to go?” he asked and I looked up.
“More than, I’m tired.”
“Give me your keys,” he murmured and I handed them over. He walked me to my Jeep and held my passenger door for me. I got in, and when he was sure he wouldn’t catch me with it, he closed the door, jogging around the front to get in on the driver’s side.
“What did you do, park your bike and run here?” I asked, noting his hair was damp at the back of his neck. He smiled over at me.
“Maybe.”
It struck me, how incredibly sweet! He’d literally run back here, just so he could drive me home. Who does that? Certainly no man I’d ever met. I liked this Nothing. I wished he were around more than the sad, lonely, tortured, Nothing.
“What?” he asked, freezing in mid motion as he was about to put the key in the ignition.
“Nothing, no pun intended.”
“What was that look for?” he persisted.
I laughed a little, “Just surprised, is all.”
He frowned, “At what?”
“You.”
He started the Jeep and leaned back, clearly expecting me to elaborate.
“You rode to Cutters, parked, and ran all the way back here just so you could give me a ride home?”
“So?”
“So, that’s quite possibly the most sweet and genuine thing that anyone has ever done for me.”
“Did I earn points?” he asked.
“Oh yeah, you earned beaucoup points.”
He smiled and laid his cut, which he was in the habit of taking off anytime he got into my Jeep, across my lap.
“Good, I’m glad,” he said and shifted gears, pulling us carefully around and out the drive, onto the boulevard.
We rode the short distance in silence, and when he got out, he told me to wait, and came around opening my door for me. I handed him his cut, and he swung it on, before taking my hand and helping me out. I smiled, and he kept my hand in his.
“I really am sorry,” he murmured and I nodded.
“I forgive you.”
“Yes, but it still doesn’t make what I did okay. I’m a screwed up head case, Charity. I think meeting you, has made me realize I need to start working on that.”
I simply nodded; I mean what could I say? It was true that Nothing clearly had some unresolved issues regarding the loss of his family, but Cutter had been right to a certain extent. I couldn’t help Nothing until Nothing let me help him, and we just weren’t far enough along in any way shape or form for that to even be a possibility.
He led me inside and up to my bedroom door, where I had every intention of letting him leave me, but like that morning, he surprised me, bending to place a chaste kiss against my lips. When he lingered just a touch too long, I took the risk, flicking my tongue against his lower lip.
My body yearned for another round of his hands on my skin, and what can I say? I was a total sucker for those deep, gray eyes of his. I wanted to soothe his hurt, and smooth the pain in them away even if it was only for a little while. The smart part of my brain was screaming at me to knock it off. To stop things before they went too far lest he have another attack of conscience, but the rest of me was totally like, take the risk girl.
His hands slid around my waist, pulling me into his body, as his mouth worked mine and I think we were both lost for a minute, in each other, and neither one of us were a responsible adult enough to pull back or stop. After saving that boy on the beach, after fucking in Nothing’s kitchen, I think I realized that both of us were adrenaline junkies with a heart, to a certain extent. Otherwise why would each of us have chosen emergency medicine?
Nothing broke the kiss and I felt a twinge of disappointment which flared into a white hot desire when his lush mouth moved from mine to the side of my neck, lips gliding against the skin, teeth nipping sharply, his tongue hot and wet and soothing the sting until he found that spot right there that turned my insides liquid and my knees to jelly.
I gasped, my arms reflexively going around his shoulders, and he lifted me with ease. I either wrapped my legs around him, or this was going to get awkward really quick, so I complied. When I did, he took a step inside my room, kicking the door shut behind us.
It was dark outside, the golden glow from the small, bedside lamp, making the space seem smaller and more intimate. He set my ass on the edge of the bed and I disengaged my legs, sitting while he straightened and took off his vest.
Desire, a naked want, filled his eyes and I felt an answering want flood my own. I reached up to touch him, letting my hands glide down his body in a caress until I found the waistband on his jeans. He tossed his head back and gave a shuddering sigh, as my fingers hooked into the front of his waistband, working the button free of its confining loop.
“Charity,” he gasped and I shushed him.
“Shh, I want to do this for you,” I murmured. I unzipped his pants and worked them down his thighs until his cock sprang free, thick and long, standing at attention. I wrapped gentle fingers around him, stroking him softly, looking up at him so that he could see that yes, I really wanted this, as I took him into my waiting mouth.
Slightly salty, with a hint of musk, was how he tasted and I was in heaven as I let him travel over my tongue to the back of my throat, careful not to choke. There was an art to giving head, one I had perfected as a teenager, and it was really something I loved to do. What I couldn’t fit of him in my mouth, I kept wrapped in my fingers, letting my saliva lubricate him on my withdrawal; I worked him gently, making love to him slowly with my mouth.
“Oh, god!” he cried, perfectly sculpted chest rising and falling with quick breaths, in and out, pausing and crying out when I worked a particularly sensitive spot on the underside of him, near his head, with my tongue. He kept his hands on the back of his neck, fingers laced, a tension to his body, head bowed and those beautiful gray eyes watching me and I slowly descended, taking him in, working him inch by inch into my mouth, holding him until I had a need to breathe only to back off of him swiftly when it became paramount that I do.
He fought himself not to thrust, but I didn’t mind if he did. He dropped his hands to his sides, balling them into fists, careful not to grab my head, trembling with the exertion not to do so, and while I appreciated it, it wasn’t required. I let my hands find his, twining my fingers with his, letting them find the spaces between his when he let his hands relax out of the tight fists he’d been making. I locked our hands together as I took away the aid of my hand on his cock. Relaxing my throat, I swallowed him whole, all the way down. When his head rested in my throat, I swallowed around him, his hips jerked again in reflex, all on their own, and I backed off quickly so that I could breathe. Nothing kept his head bowed, his eyes squeezing shut as he gasped, and struggled to maintain control. He wanted to thrust, he wanted to thrust so badly, but he didn’t.
I couldn’t imagine how long it’d been for him since a woman last did this for him, especially given what he’d told me, so I have to admit I was impressed at not only his level of control, but his staying power as well. I licked and sucked him patiently, his hands gripping mine so tight, they trembled, the skin of his fingers mottled red and white, the split in his knuckle nearly opening up again. His whole body held a fine tremble to it now and his cock jerked reflexively in my mouth telling me before he could that he was nearly at the end of his rope.
He tried to warn me anyways, “Oh god, I’m gonna come!” and I swallowed him down. He spilled down my throat in a hot wash and I took it, backing off and taking in air only when I was sure he was done. He slipped from my mouth, a glistening strand of saliva between my bottom lip and the head of his cock which I found both alluring and erotic, but then his hand was under my chin, tipping my head back and his mouth was on mine, plundering, exploring; taking with a frenzy borne of need.
He pulled me up and I kicked off my shoes, his hands at my waist, were already lifting my tee and I raised my arms above my head, letting him have it. He stripped it off, mouths crashing back together, lips and tongues clashing, each fighting to dominate the kiss. Nothing was winning by a landslide and I really liked that about him.
Before I could even lower my arms, his fingers were scrambling at the back of my bra, going for the clasp. He unhooked it and I let it fall. He kicked out of his boots, stepping on the hems of his pants to pull first one and the other leg free, while his hands smoothed over my skin, roaming my torso, kneading my breasts. I was letting my hands do every bit the same amount of wandering, stuttering when I found a seam of scar just below his waistline at his back; wrapping around his thigh running down the side of his leg, I think, nearly to the knee. I tried to draw back, to look, but Nothing stopped me. His hands going to either side of my face, cupping it, keeping our mouths locked until the resistance left my body and I moaned leaning into him.
He found my waistband when he knew he had me back under his thrall and worked the button and zipper on the front of my shorts, pushing them down until they fell at my feet. He broke the kiss we’d been feeding one another’s fires with and pushed me backwards, going to his knees at the side of the bed. I fell back and before I could push myself up, he wrapped powerful arms around my thighs just above my knees and pulled me until my ass rested on the very edge of the bed.
“Just relax, baby, and keep your ankles high,” he murmured and pulled my panties aside, licking a wet line from my opening to my clit. I cried out and arched my hands finding the silk of his hair and pressing his mouth right where I needed him. He hummed in appreciation and my hips jerked of their own volition, much like his had.
He lapped at my clit, finding what sent shivers through my body, what sent me to shuddering beneath him, and then followed through by exploiting the ever loving hell out of those spots until I lay sopping, begging him for a deeper touch. I craved him like I craved no other. He wound me up and watched me go, his gray eyes full of all the right kinds of evil. He knelt up and pulled me down again, only this time he paused to ask, “Condom?”
“Fuck it,” I responded and he grinned and tilted his head to the side, ripping my panties off and tossing them aside, before driving himself into me to the hilt. I arched, back bowing to damn near the breaking point which served to drive me even further onto his penis and oh, holy god. I now knew what it meant ‘to see stars,’ flashbulbs of pleasure going off behind my eyelids.
“You, didn’t come, the last time, we did this, did you?” every pause in his speech, punctuated with a hard thrust.
“No!” I gasped out.
“Gonna, have, to make, that up, to you!” he said and drove me fucking wild. He set a strong, near punishing, rhythm. His thumb finding my clit and rubbing it as he towered over me. Just looking at the long, lean, fine as hell line of his body as he worked himself in and out of me was enough to get me halfway to orgasm. The way he fucked me, he was running himself over that sacred spot inside of me, turning me on, tuning my body up, until my toes curled and that sweet pressure built, it only took a few teasing strokes of his thumb to send me hurtling into that abyss no one ever wanted to come back from.
I was vaguely aware, that in the really real world, my back was arching again, my body bent nearly double backwards as he encouraged me to keep coming, to milk his cock for everything it was worth, and I was pretty sure my body had this, because my mind was nowhere near being able to handle his commands.
Holy, god almighty.
It was intense, he was intense, and you never would have known just how intense by looking at him or by his day to day interactions with people.
He let up on my clit, thank god, I didn’t think I could take anymore I was so hypersensitive. His gray eyes swept me from the crown of my head all the way down, lingering on my heavy lidded eyes, which I could appreciate. He’d slowed his rhythm to slow, lazy strokes, letting me recover, letting me catch my breath and I could appreciate that too.
“Come on, come up here,” he took me by the hands and pulled me up into his arms, winding my legs around his hips. I twined my arms around his shoulders, and he picked me up, getting his feet under him and lifting me, arms shuddering for just a moment until he got the weight and feel of me. I was enamored by the fact that he hadn’t pulled out of me.
He walked us up onto the bed on his knees and laid me down more comfortably, joining me on the mattress, leaning over me, smoothing stray strands of hair from my ponytail away where they clung to my face. He was gentle, far gentler than the moment before; than he had been in his kitchen.
He picked up his pace and I almost mirrored him in a way, combing my fingers through his hair and holding it out of his eyes as this incredible connection, this shared moment, this shared energy, built between us. He closed his eyes, turning his face to nip lightly at the inside of my wrist and I felt myself contract around his cock in an unexpected aftershock. He bowed his head and moaned, picking up pace and I pulled him down from where he was bracing himself off of me with his arms.
He folded against me, and we held each other, him moving inside of me, the frantic energy of before winding into a softer, sweeter thing. We went from fucking, to a languid sort of sex and edged right into, dare I say, making love in the span of only a few minutes time. It was a strange sort of feeling, making love to a near perfect stranger, which is what we were, really. Intense attraction aside, we hardly knew anything about each other and really had only spent a handful of days near one another… God this was moving fast! In all fairness, Hope had warned me…
“You’re thinking,” he uttered.
“I’m sorry?”
“I’m not doing this right if you’re thinking,” he murmured and kissed the side of my neck, worrying at that spot that sent a wash of tingles all down my body. I shuddered and felt his lips curve into a secret smile against my skin as he quickened his pace, thrusting into me that much harder, hard enough that I thought he was trying to come through me.
He boosted himself back up onto his knees, his hands curving under my ass, supporting my lower body so that he could go searching for the right angle to penetrate me at, the one that would send his dick riding over that, oh my god, he found it.
The head of his cock slicked over and over my g-spot and I swear to god, that warm golden glow of ecstasy built twice as fast as the first time. He licked his thumb, the devil in his eyes and sent me crashing into that warm bath feeling. I was drowning and I never wanted to come up for air. I could stay good and drowned in this man’s arms. I didn’t care. Here felt like heaven.