Chapter Eight
“How was your first night working here?”
The blond stood in the doorway with his arms folded over his chest and a wicked grin on his mouth, looking like some sort of Norse God. Ronnie wasn’t as impressed as she probably should be.
His hair tumbled over his shoulders in soft, golden waves and his eyes were so blue they almost took on a glow. His biceps bulged through his shirt, which was half open, showing off his perfectly chiseled chest, and something about him drew Ronnie in, made her want to reach out and touch him. She took a few steps toward him, then shook her head, and backed up.
“Who are you?” She’d seen him talking to Luc earlier in the night and they looked friendly, but she got the feeling that Luc wasn’t happy with the guy.
“Call me Az. I’m Luc’s younger brother.” He stepped forward and held out a hand. Ronnie eyed it suspiciously, then took it for a quick shake. A spark of static electricity traveled through her hand and up her arm, and she jumped back, dropping his hand.
“Luc didn’t mention you.” Ronnie’s eyes narrowed and she held her arms stiff at her sides.
“No, I suppose he wouldn’t. I would think that you two had better things to talk about when you were alone, than his siblings.”
Ronnie took a step back, and he advanced, keeping the stifling distance between them static. She thought about slipping past him out of the office to find Luc, not wanting to be alone with the guy any longer, but something kept her planted. It was as if there was a hum coming off him, an energy that drew her in, yet it was that same bizarre force that cautioned her not to trust him.
“Are you afraid of me?” Az choked out a surprised laugh. “Now isn’t that the twist.”
She was about to tell him hell no, that she wasn’t afraid of anything, but her voice refused to cooperate. The lie died in her throat.
“Leave the girl alone, Az. I thought you were done here?” Luc walked over to Ronnie and put his arm around her protectively. She was never big on guys who staked their claim on a woman in public, or went all caveman on them, but this time, she was grateful. Az gave her the creeps for some reason and Luc was clearly trying to get him to back off, so she was not about to complain.
“Are you trying to get rid of me, brother?”
“Yes. Was that not clear already?” Luc raised an eyebrow, but his lips stayed flat, almost bored.
“Fine. I’ll go, but just remember what we talked about. You know that I’m right, Lucifer.”
Luc walked over to his brother and followed him through the door. “I know no such thing.”
They kept talking after Ronnie could no longer hear them and she went about counting out her tips for the night. There was a part of her that wanted to sneak around the corner and hear what they were saying, but she shook it off and dealt with her tips.
Counting through her wad of cash, she realized she made much more than she expected to. A few nights like this and it might almost match what she made on Friday nights.
During the day and early evening, the place was a high end bar, but once night rolled around, the ropes went down and it became an even higher end club. The customers didn’t all look like they had money to burn, but they tipped like they did. Ronnie wasn’t going to complain. If she made this much on a regular basis, she might be able to give up the fights eventually, and still put the kids through college.
Ronnie thought about the kids at home. Mae was sixteen now and only had one more year of high school left. Then she’d be off to college, and that wasn’t cheap. After that, Jen would be along just a few short years later. And Freddy, who knew how fast he would finish. He was already ahead of Jen, despite the fact that he was two years younger. At least he was likely to get scholarships and give her bank account a break.
“How did you do? Monday nights are on the slow side here.” Harley looked down at the pile of cash and frowned.
“If this is a slow night, then I can’t wait for the weekend.” Ronnie stacked the bills and shoved them into her purse. “Hey, Luc’s brother, Az… what’s his deal?” She regretted asking as soon as the words left her mouth, but it was too late to take them back.
Harley shifted on her feet and glanced back toward the door. “He’s uh, he’s okay. He comes around sometimes when he’s bored. Why?”
“I don’t know. I just got a weird vibe off him. He’s a little creepy.”
The corner of Harley’s mouth came up into a half-smile. “He’s an angel.”
“Who’s an angel?” Luc strode into the room with a smile.
“You are, of course. Oh and Az.”
“Well, that’s true. But then I’m more of a fallen angel.” Luc chuckled and they exchanged looks, like it was some inside joke that Ronnie wasn’t privy to. “How were tips? Sorry Monday is slow.” Luc’s smile fell to a frown.
“Yeah, that’s what Harley said, but they were good.” Ronnie tapped her purse. “Anything else you need me to do before I go?”
Luc’s eyes darkened and his lips spread into the kind of smile that should have been a warning, but heated Ronnie in a way she knew was wrong. “Yes, there is definitely something I need.”
He advanced, his intent clear and singular. Ronnie wasn’t keen on a show and she was about to say something about Harley standing right there, but when she looked over his shoulder, the girl was gone, with the door shut behind her.
“And what is it you need?” She took a few steps back without even realizing she’d done it until her ass bumped the cold metal of the desk.
“You.”
“Oh.”
Ronnie’s mouth went dry and Luc advanced like a predator. Something about him set off warning alarms in her brain, but she ignored them every time. He was dangerous, and she knew it. She just didn’t care.
“Take off your clothes,” Luc demanded, his voice low and even, but deadly serious. Ronnie had never been one to take orders from a man, but before her brain could tell him to fuck off, she was lifting her shirt over her head and undoing her bra as if a magical force was guiding her.
Her breasts sprung forward and her nipples hardened into tight peaks, begging to be touched. Luc stood only inches away, inspecting her, but not touching. He nodded his head toward her shorts, as if to say, now those. She complied with his silent request, adding her shorts and panties to the pile on the floor.
Standing there naked, she waited, allowing him to enjoy his fill. Wetness pooled between her legs and her clit throbbed with the anticipation of his touch. She would give him a few moments to enjoy the view before she demanded more. There was something about the way his dark eyes burned into her, that turned her on even more. She wanted his touch, but she was enjoying his eyes on her, too.
Sparks of electricity passed between them, dancing in arcs over her skin. For a quick moment, Ronnie had to look down to make sure he wasn’t actually touching her. His knowing half smile told her he understood what she was feeling much more than he should.
“You are so beautiful.” Luc’s voice was raw, almost a growl, and it sent shivers over Ronnie’s body which faded into a tingle that shimmered over her.
No longer able to wait, she reached out and grabbed him by the waistband of his pants to pull him against her. The soft silk of his shirt brushed over her nipples as she stood on her toes to reach his mouth. He wasn’t assisting her, merely allowing her access. She pulled his bottom lip into her mouth and bit a little rougher than she should have. With his lip still between her teeth, he smiled against her mouth .
Ronnie had no patience for the row of pearl buttons that kept her from his hot flesh. She slipped her hands under the fabric and explored his chest. His skin was smooth and tight in all the right spots. She had to taste him, take in the salty tang of his flesh, mix his essence with her own.
Luc stood still, other than reaching one hand up to the back of her head to lift her hair from her face, allowing him a view of her as she explored his body with her tongue. Luc tasted like sin, if that even had a taste.
She was sure it did.
And she needed more.
Sinking down to her knees before him, she undid his pants and pushed them down his hips. His cock sprang forward, fully erect, and bobbed in front of her face, tempting her. He appeared even bigger up close. How that was possible, she wasn’t sure. Maybe it was like one of those objects in mirror are closer than they appear things. But instead, it was like, penis from farther away only appears huge, when in reality it’s downright monstrous.
“Something amusing you down there?” Luc peered around her head and cracked a half smile.
“Maybe.” She leaned back on her heels to take him in.
How the hell did that fit inside her?
One silky drop glistened on the tip and she poked her tongue out to taste him. Different men had different tastes and Luc was no exception. The only difference was that his taste had her craving more. She’d never particularly been a fan of it before, but with Luc, she could see herself enjoying every drop of him.
She had to think logistics.
Could she even fit her mouth around him?
She was damn sure going to try.
Ronnie licked over her lips, widened her mouth, and sucked him into her. She wasn’t going to fit much more than his head, but she could use her hands to compensate. Her teeth gently grazed him, and he tensed, but it wouldn’t take away from her enjoyment of him.
She used one hand to steady his shaft, cupping his balls into her palm, and the other to stroke over his length as she swirled her tongue over him, popping his crown in and out of her mouth. Luc’s grip on her hair tightened into a painful grasp and the muscles in his thighs rippled. She took that as encouragement to continue, but he reached down with his free hand and lifted her up.
“No more of that, or your sweet pussy will miss out on all the fun.”
She wanted to tell him she didn’t care, that she wanted him in her mouth, but she ached to feel him inside her, too. She had no doubt she could get him hard a second time, have it both ways, but her need overtook her, and she allowed him to lift her onto his desk.
With slow, deliberate precision, Luc unbuttoned each button of his shirt, his eyes trained on her the whole time. Ronnie wanted to reach up, rip the shirt open the rest of the way, and get to the good part, but she held back, allowing him the slow tease.
When his shirt was fully undone, he slipped it off his shoulders, and let it drop to the floor. Her hands begged to come up, to roam over his tight chest, to pull him down to her, and feel his flesh press hard against her aching breasts. But she held back and waited to see what he would do next.
Luc stepped out of his pants that had been bunched at his ankles, and spread Ronnie’s legs open roughly. She pulled her feet up onto the desk for support and slid her ass to the edge of the cold, metal desktop. He took his giant cock into his hand and rubbed it over her clit a few times, making her shiver with increasing need. She wanted to grab his hips, dig her nails into them, and pull him inside her, but his smile told her he wouldn’t allow her to speed things up, as if he knew what she was thinking.
When she was panting and whimpering, just about ready to scream, he relented, and positioned his thick head at her opening. He waited for her eyes to meet his, then slid into her in one excruciatingly slow thrust. She tried to wiggle her hips, force him to the hilt, but he grabbed her ass, holding her in place, and watched as their bodies slowly came together.
Amused with her frustration, Luc laughed, and pulled out just as slow. If he was going to fuck her like that, she was going to punch him in the face. Not that it didn’t feel amazing, it did, but she needed it faster, harder, to be pounded by him until she couldn’t think. After the week she’d had, it was all she could handle.
As if he could sense her growing anger, he changed pace, picking up speed in increments, until he was slamming her so hard the desk was jumping and scraping the wood floor.
“Is… this… how… you… want… it?” he asked between pounding thrusts, his teeth clenched together as he spoke. He was holding off with all his strength, for her, waiting until she’d had enough. But Ronnie needed more and she was going to have it from him.
She sat straighter, wrapping her arms around his neck, and dug her nails into his back. She thought about whispering into his ear, telling him exactly how much more she wanted, but her body betrayed her, tensing around his thick cock in a painful grip.
Luc groaned into her hair. It was a strangled sound, more like he was begging her to come so he could follow. She fought it every second she could, but it was too late, beyond the point of no return, and she screamed against his ear, exploding into orgasm around him.
With two more thrusts, Luc was following behind her, the head of his cock swelling before he released a hot jet of come into her. For just a moment, she wondered why the idea of condoms had never come up, but she pushed it aside, loving the feel of his burning release inside her.
Completely spent, she released his neck and fell back against the desk, trying to catch her breath. She was vaguely aware of Luc stroking the side of her thigh with his fingertips, his softening cock still inside her. When she finally opened her eyes, she found him watching her with a sweet smile. She’d seen a lot of smiles on Luc, but never that one. And she wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.
***
“I’m going to need you to sign this.” Mae handed Ronnie her paper after she’d finished signing the usual stack and had went over returned tests. She was twirling her hoodie string around one finger and avoiding eye contact.
Ronnie knew that look.
“Why wasn’t it in the pile with the rest.”
That could only mean one thing. It was bad. If it was only a little bad, it would have been hidden at the end of the stack, worst for last. But when it was held back, saved for later, maybe even only given as a last resort, Ronnie knew what it meant. She had done the very same thing enough times in her life to be sure.
Mae reluctantly handed over the paper and took a few steps back, still refusing to look in Ronnie’s direction. Before reading it, Ronnie looked to Jen and Freddy for a clue, but they both shrugged at the same time. That probably meant that it was worse than she thought. When the two who knew everything about everyone didn’t know, it couldn’t be good.
And it wasn’t.
The words jumped out at Ronnie like a punch to the gut. Just one more way she’d been failing at the whole mother thing.
“Suspended? For skipping school? Are you frigging kidding me? I dropped you off at the front steps? What the hell did you do, walk out the back door?”
Mae kept her eyes down and shrugged. Ronnie wanted to strangle the girl. Her anger rose to the surface and her muscles twitched. She was working her ass off to provide for those kids and they refused to make it easy for even one second.
“You have nothing to say?” Ronnie stood and fumed over the girl. “So while I’m out working to support your ungrateful ass, and buying groceries so you have food to eat, and cleaning everything around here because you are too damn lazy to wash a dish or pick up some socks, you are out fucking around with God knows who?”
Tears welled in the corner’s of Mae’s eyes and her bottom lip quivered, but she stayed silent. Her lack of response only made Ronnie angrier. At least when she was Mae’s age, she’d had the the courage to stand up and tell her parents the truth. Even though part of her had enjoyed pissing them off and Mae definitely didn’t look like she was enjoying any of this. Which was a damn good thing.
“Tell me this wasn’t to be with some boy, Mae. We haven’t even talked about being careful. Or boys. What the hell is happening here?” Ronnie threw her hands in the air and squeezed her eyes shut for a long moment.
Mae stayed silent, her eyes trained on her feet.
“I need you to say something, or I’m going to frigging lose it.” Ronnie’s breathing was coming in fast pants and her hands were balled at her sides. She would never hit her sister, but that wouldn’t stop her from putting a fist through the kitchen wall, which she’d actually done, twice.
“I just couldn’t be there, okay?” The tears broke free and fell down Mae’s face. “We had to do a project tracing our family tree. We don’t have a tree, or we do, a dead one.” Her words rose in pitch until she was nearly screaming. “Mom, dad, both sets of grandparents. We don’t even have aunts, uncles, or cousins. It’s just us. That’s not a tree, that’s a fucking stump.” Mae slammed her books down on the table and took off running for her room. With each stomp up the stairs, Ronnie broke a little bit more.
Her shoulders slumped forward and she took a deep breath. While she was busy trying to keep them alive, she somehow pushed the grief out of her mind. The main focus was getting by, day by day, just surviving. It hadn’t even occurred to her that her siblings were dealing with it all on their own.
And the sister of the year award goes to…
The doorbell rang, pulling Ronnie from her thoughts. She hurried to get it before she had to get the younger two off to school and deal with Mae. Outside, were two police officers, detectives from the look of their suits.
“Ronnie Falcon?” the female detective asked, her hand resting over her gun.
The hair on the back of Ronnie’s neck sprung up and her stomach twisted into a knot. “Yes. Can I help you?”
“I’m Detective Ward and this is Detective Updike. We need you to come with us.”
Updike had his handcuffs out before she could process what was going on and they were pulling her through the door by her arm. This wasn’t a good time for this. She had to get the kids to school. She needed to talk to Mae. How could this be happening?
“No.” She tried to plant her feet in place, but it did her no good. “My brother and sisters. I can’t just leave them here alone. They have school and I have to make sure Mae has someone with her while she is…” Ronnie turned her head around to see Freddy and Jen staring in horror as she was cuffed and handed off to the female detective.
“Don’t worry. They will be taken care of by social services. You are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent…”
The rest of his words blurred together and went over her head. She was underwater, drowning, and nothing made sense. Why was she being arrested? What would happen to the kids? Was she still sleeping and this was a dream?
Flashes of the asshole in the alley went through her mind. His face, beaten and bloody, barely recognizable. Was he dead? Did he wake up and give them her description? Had she lost her id nearby like those morons you see on TV?
It didn’t even matter.
Whatever it was, she was going to jail. Her siblings would be sent to foster care and she would never see them again. She never should have been trusted with their care in the first place. She was barely responsible for herself when their parents died and now she’d screwed everything up.
Somewhere in the back of her consciousness, she could hear the kids crying. Freddy was being held back by a uniformed cop as he kicked and screamed, trying to get to her. Their family was being torn apart for the second time in six months, only this time, it was all her fault.
After being shoved into the back of a car, she watched a middle-aged woman with a clipboard usher the kids out of the house into a minivan. Freddy was still struggling, but Mae was holding on to him with one arm, with Jen on the other.
Social services.
The kids were being taken away. After everything she’d done over the last six months to keep them together, they were being split up because of her. Because of her temper, her anger. Now they would all pay the price.
All three kids were in tears. The younger two huddled against one another like frightened children in the back of the van. Which really, they were. Their terrified eyes haunted Ronnie and was the last thing she saw before she was driven away to face her inevitable fate.
Jail.