The next few days droned on. Since Abel was gone, Holt was working like a dog and Raine was in school, and most of the time I was bored out of my skull.

Right as I was closing Raine’s door from putting her to sleep a little later than normal—it was Friday and I figured I could be a tad bit lenient since she didn’t have to be up for school in the morning—I heard the front door slam and the sound of voices in the living room.

Nerves crashed into my stomach when Abel’s gruff tone called up the stairs to me, “Babe? You here?”

I got freaking giddy as his boots started stomping up the stairs. “Yeah. Just put Raine down.”

Her door swung open and she ran out. “Daddy!”

Abel scooped her into his arms. “Hey sugar. You should be in bed.”

“I’m just so happy to see you!” She nuzzled and squeezed him and I saw his heart melt.

“Come on, let’s get you back to bed.”

“But you just got home. I want to spend time with you.”

He kissed her cheek and laid her back down into her Tinkerbell covered bed. “We’ll spend time together in the morning. Promise.”

“Pinky promise?” She held her tiny pinky out for his.

“Pinky promise.”

I was a puddle of goo on the floor watching how amazing he was with Raine. It made Abel that much sexier to me.

I followed Abel into his room.

“How’d everything go around here?” he asked while pulling his cut off. He threw it onto the chair and that’s when I noticed the black eye and busted up knuckles.

“Fine.” I tried to ignore it. I knew he probably wouldn’t tell me what happened, why he was in a fight, but I guess I didn’t do a good job of hiding the concern on my face.

Abel pulled a clean white shirt over his head before taking me into his arms. “Don’t worry babe, it doesn’t even hurt.”

“Ok.” That was all I could choke out before our lips were crashing together.

I gripped Abel’s shirt, pulling him into me as he winced. “What?” I quickly pulled away from him.

“Just a bruised rib. Nothing to worry about.”

“Did you at least find the guy you were looking for?”

He sat down on the bed, grabbing my hand to pull me over to him. “Yes. Everything has been taken care of and everyone is fine.”

“That’s good.”

He nodded and scooped me into his arms, moving to carry me into the bathroom.

“What are you doing?” I giggled as he sat me down on the counter.

He kissed my hair before turning on the water in the shower. “I want to get cleaned up and I figured you should join me.”

My hair was still damp from the shower I’d taken after dinner. “What if I don’t want to?” I bit my lip as he walked over to me.

“I didn’t ask, did I?”

The steam bellowed up over the glass door of the shower.

Before I knew what was happening, Abel had me in his arms, my back on the slick tile of the shower as the warm water rolled over our skin. He was gently nibbling my neck, sending chills down my body even in the warm water.

“God, I missed you.” He rumbled in my ear, grabbing a fistful of my wet hair, pulling it back to extend my neck.

I moaned as the head of his cock rubbed my sensitive clit, making my want for him to fill me again grow.

“Are you on birth control?”

I hesitated. I was, but I had never been with a guy without a condom. I’d heard it was supposed to be so much better, but it scared me. I had no idea where his dick had been.

“Abel, I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”

He sighed and set me down. He knelt and started to kiss my stomach.

I let his lips brush against my wet skin. “Have you ever had sex without a condom?”

“No. But I just don’t know.”

He pushed me against the wall with one hand and started rubbing his thumb over my bud. Gently he started to lick and suck my clit. My knees buckled from the gentle ecstasy as his tongue rolled over my delicate skin.

“Oh, my, God! Abel.” I could barely stand as my knees shook. I gripped onto his muscular shoulders as he looked up at me. His eyes consumed me as the pleasure of that moment took over. Quickly my orgasm built in the pit of my stomach and crashed hard as my body shook and my hips bucked.

Abel got to his feet, kissing and nibbling on my hard nipples on his way back up.

“I can respect you not wanting to do it without a rubber, babe. You don’t need to explain it. I’m clean. I’m assuming you are too and when you’re ready I will fuck that pussy raw. I want to feel your skin on mine, but I can be patient.”

He turned the shower off and handed me a towel.

“I’ll be right back.” He threw a towel around his dripping waist and left the bathroom. He returned quickly, dropping the towel on the floor. He slowly started to stroke his erection in his hand.

“Get on your hands and knees.” He pointed down at the plush bathmat. His eyes smoldered as he watched me do as I was instructed.

The drop of pre-come released, so I slowly rolled my tongue over the soft head as his fingers laced in my hair. “Open.”

I opened my mouth as he pushed into the back of my throat so hard I choked. It was surprisingly exhilarating.

“God, I love fucking your mouth.” Abel moaned, thrusting faster and as hard as he could. I moaned too, my back arching from the pleasure of pleasing him.

He slid his dick out and pushed my head down onto the rug, slapping my ass. I heard him rip the condom wrapper. “I’ve wanted this since I had to run out of here the other morning. I have dreamed about your perfect ass and beautiful cunt. Say you’re mine, Crickett.”

I moaned into the rug. “Abel, I’m yours. Please shove your cock into my pussy.”

His thumb rolled over my clit as his teeth nipped at my ass cheek. He slowly plunged his thumb into my wetness as he pushed my ass higher into the air.

I groaned and pulled away from him, rolling over onto my back. He pulled my hips up into his as he thrust into me and my world started spinning. It was so much fucking better than anything I had ever felt. He started off slow and gentle, building momentum.

“Your tits are so fucking sexy, bouncing as I push my dick into you.”

I rolled my fingers over my hard sensitive nipples. Abel bit his piercing.

“Does that feel good babe?”

I nodded, my breath hitching as his nails dug into my hips.

“How about this?” He grabbed my other hand, taking my first two fingers and guiding them over my clit. My body shook uncontrollably as instantly an orgasm erupted.

“Holy fucking shit.”

Abel smiled. “I’ll take that as it was good too. My turn.”

Without taking his dick out of my pussy, he picked me up and pressed me against the wall.

“That was impressive.”

He bit my neck. “Sugar, you haven’t seen anything yet. The things that I have planned to do to you will rock your world.”

It only took a few fast, hard pumps before I felt Abel swell and pulse inside me as his head fell to my shoulder.

Abel carried me to the bed, climbing in next to me. He grabbed two packets of Fun Dip from the nightstand and glanced at me with a small smirk and a raised eyebrow.

“That looks freaking delicious.”

He threw a blue raspberry over to me and we cuddled, eating candy like high schoolers after prom.

My eyes wandered over his bare chest, noticing the deep blues and purples covering his ribs.

“Do they hurt?”

He shook his head, licking the last of the blue powder off of the white candy stick. “Babe, there ain’t nothin’ to worry about.” He kissed the top of my head. “I’m fine.”

We threw away our empty rappers, Abel wrapping me up in his strong arms.

“Goodnight,” he whispered.

* * *

Waking up still cradled in Abel’s arms in the middle of the night was a little awkward. The whole thing was awkward, but perfect in its own way. How do two people just fall into such a great rhythm like that so fast? It felt like Abel and I were two puzzle pieces that had finally found each other.

I wiggled out from under his arm, pulled his shirt on over my bare body, and made my way down to the kitchen, praying for a cold bottle of water.

I opened up the fridge to find one last bottle. I cracked the seal and started to chug when I was startled out of my skin by a raspy voice coming from the kitchen table.

“Who the heck are you?” asked the mysterious stranger cloaked in the shadows. I shot around to look at him, gasping for breath and nearly spitting all the water out onto myself.

I flipped on the kitchen light and my heart sank. It was like I was looking directly into my own eyes.

I started hyperventilating.

I was dizzy.

My entire body started shaking.

“Crickett? Is that you?” the man said, getting up from the table.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I spit out, stepping backward into the refrigerator as I recoiled from the man that used to be my dad.

“I should be asking you the same question.”

Abel’s large frame took up the entryway to the kitchen. “Rave? Crickett? Everything okay in here?”

“So it really is you!” Rave’s eyes got wide, staring at me.

“Do you know her, Dad?”

I couldn’t breathe. “Did you just call him…” I was about to pass the fuck out.

No fucking way.

This cannot be happening.

“Abel is my stepson.” Rave took his seat again at the table with a sigh. “And this young lady over here is my daughter.”

Abel’s face got white. He started to pace the floor. “Is he why you came to this town?”

I nodded.

“You’ve been looking for me?” Rave pulled the chair out next to him, but there was no way I could be that close to him yet. I was too freaked out, not to mention I was practically naked, standing there in just a white t-shirt. Thankfully Abel was so much bigger than me that his shirt was like a damn dress, but still, I had never felt more exposed in my life, especially with both of them staring at me.

I had imagined seeing my father again over and over for years, but I’d never thought that he’d be sitting in the kitchen in a motorcycle gang vice president’s house wearing a matching cut at four in the freaking morning claiming to be his goddamn stepfather. This was all too damn much for me to take.

“Fuck you, Rave!” I yelled and stormed out of the kitchen and straight out the front door, grabbing my purse and keys off the coffee table on my way.

“Crickett wait!” I could hear Rave running after me.

Tears were already pouring down my face as I ran down the front steps off the porch.

“Please let me explain,” he called after me, but I was already in my car, engine going.

I rolled down my window. “You had your chance to explain for years. Instead you ran up the mountain and played dad for another fucking kid? You make me sick.”

I sped out of the driveway and was just about a mile down the road when I realized that I had no idea where to go. I still had the motel room, but the key for it was back at Abel’s, along with all my other shit.

I really need to start thinking things through more often.

Quickly the headlights of two motorcycles were hot on my tail. Abel rode up next to me and started yelling at me to pull over. I was crying hysterically, shaking my head no and swerving all over the road.

All of a sudden, Rave was in front of me, braking. I swerved off the road, barely missing his back bumper, and slammed my car in park.

I was a mess. My emotions were getting the better of me.

Snot was pouring from my nose.

I wasn’t wearing real clothes.

I wanted to be mad, but I was more hurt than anything.

Abel got off his bike and came to my window. “Crickett,” he yelled through the window, “Unlock your doors now.”

I shook my head, hands glued to the steering wheel.

“I’m not asking. Let me in this goddamn car. You’re too upset to be driving. You’ll fucking kill yourself or worse, someone else.”

There was no one on the roads at four in the morning in this tiny town in the mountains of North Carolina, but I knew he was right: I was too upset to be driving. I slid over into the passenger seat and hit the unlock button. Abel slid into the driver’s side and locked the car again. He grabbed my hand.

“So Rave’s your old man, huh?”

I nodded.

Thanks Captain Obvious.

“That doesn’t change the way I feel about you.” He was firm, resolute.

I stared out the window at Rave as he just sat on his bike with his head in his hands. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Do what? See him or be with me?”

“Both, maybe. Fuck, I don’t know. I just fucked my goddamned stepbrother.” The words made me feel sick.

Abel started laughing a little.

I shot him an evil eye, tears still staining my face. “What the fuck could be so funny right now?”

“Have you seen Joe Dirt?”

I nodded.

“The scene where he’s fucking that chick that isn’t his sister but he makes her scream ‘I’m your sister’ just popped into my head.”

I gasped and slammed my fist into this shoulder. “You’re an ass.”

“Yeah, probably.” He grabbed my hand. “Look. We’re two freaking adults. An hour ago we were the same two fucking people as we are right now. Just because you’re Rave’s daughter, you think that changes?”

I shrugged. “It’s just all so fucked.”

His lips brushed the back of my hand. “Rave married my mom after I was eighteen. I only call him Dad since I don’t have one anymore and it’s less confusing for Raine.”

Abel’s eyes filled with pain and the ice that had built up around my heart in the last thirty minutes started to melt.

“Is he good to her?”

“The best. I don’t have any family left. I have the club and Rave. That’s it.”

“Daddy! Higher!”

The warm sun beat down on my smiling face as my dad pushed me higher and higher on the swing. It was a beautiful warm summer day.

“How’s that princess?”

He shoved me harder and I went flying through the air as fast as the wind.

“Weeee!” I screamed.

“Let’s get you home for some lunch.” He grabbed the swing to slow it down.

“Just a little bit longer?” I pleaded, popping out my lower lip.

He grabbed me, holding me close to his chest as he kissed my cheek. “Tomorrow’s your first day of school, don’t you want to get your Cinderella backpack all ready?”

I gasped with excitement. “Yeah!”

“Ok, well then we better head home. Love you princess.”

He kissed my hair and walked us over to his white truck. “Love you too, Daddy!”

Tears were streaming down my face as Abel shook my shoulder. “Zone out there for a minute, babe?”

Ugh. Hearing my stepbrother call me babe was weird, but not even an hour before he’d been my beautiful stranger that I was falling hard and fast for.

This is going to take some getting used to.

At the end of the day, he was mine and I was his, even though it was wrong. I barely knew him; he was my boss, not to mention my freaking stepbrother. It just felt too right.

I mumbled, “Yeah. Just remembering.”

“Good stuff?”

That’s when I realized I was smiling, still looking out the window to Rave, who looked extremely distraught.

“He loved me.”

I had finally remembered how much he had meant to me and I him. We really did have a bond, and that made it that much more confusing.

“Why didn’t he fight for me?”

“I think Rave is the only one that will be able to answer that one.”

I slumped down in my seat. “Can you take me home?”

“Of course, as long as by home, you mean back to my place so you can get some pants on and finally get the answers you’ve been looking for.”

“Thanks.” I leaned over and kissed Abel’s stubble covered cheek.

Abel dialed Holt. “Hey man, sorry to wake you.”

I felt terrible that Holt had to keep cleaning up my messes.

“I need you to come with me to pick up my bike in a minute. I’m driving Crickett back to the house in her car. Long story. Get dressed. Be home in a minute.”