Chapter 17

Why don’t I think before I speak? Because I like to be surprised by what comes out of my mouth along with everyone else.

-Baylor’s secret thoughts

Baylor

I would’ve punched Rafe in the face if I had my hands free. Seeing as they were filled with a freaking out woman, I refrained. Barely.

“Goddammit,” I grumbled as I pushed the door open.

Rafe narrowly stepped out of the way in time to avoid being hit and sent me a grumbled oath for my troubles.

“Fuck,” Lark said as I put her on her feet. “That wasn’t very nice, Rafe.”

Rafe shrugged in the darkness.

“Let’s go inside,” I mumbled to them both.

Before I went very far, though, I stopped and turned back to my truck, grabbing my keys.

“Won’t be hiding these in the truck anymore,” I tossed at Lark.

Lark shrugged, which then had me thinking.

“Lark isn’t your real name, is it?”

She shook her head and pushed through the door of my house.

“Why is everything of yours unlocked?” Rafe asked.

I shrugged. “The neighborhood is good. Plus, everyone knows this is my house. Oh, and him.”

Rafe didn’t see Pongo until he was nearly standing in front of him.

Pongo sat in the darkness of the room, keeping vigil for me until I got back.

“Jesus Christ.” Rafe came to a sudden halt. “You can’t even tell that he’s there.”

He went to reach forward to place his hand on Pongo’s head, but Pongo’s ears went flat, clearly letting him know in no uncertain terms that he didn’t wish to be touched.

“Since when do you have a dog?” Rafe asked, sounding amused.

“Since I stole him,” Lark said, turning the kitchen light on.

“Stole who?” Rafe asked, eyes narrowing.

She tilted her chin in Pongo’s direction.

“Why?” he continued.

Lark crossed her arms over her chest.

“Because I wanted to, that’s why.”

“Where’d you steal him from?” Rafe pushed.

“You know exactly where she got him from,” I muttered. “Stop playing like you’re dumb.”

Rafe shrugged. “Well, I was watching her that night. Sue me.”

Lark’s eyes went wide. “That was you?”

He nodded.

“Why?” she pushed.

“Because you need a keeper,” he said. “Jesus, you’re worse than my sister.”

“You have a sister?” Both Lark and I said at the same time.

Rafe nodded. “I do.”

“If you’re the point of contact with Free, then who the hell is Harold?”

“Harold is a means to an end,” he said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t stop him from reporting you to the police for those unpaid parking fines. I was there, trying to do something else, and missed the call he placed to the mayor.”

I stared at the man that I so obviously knew nothing about.

“What the fuck?”

“There’s a lot about me you don’t know,” Rafe said.

“Tell me about it,” I muttered. “Why are you really here?”

Rafe walked to my fridge and opened it, extracting a bottled water.

How he knew I had bottled water in there was anyone’s guess. I normally had nothing but a half gallon of white milk.

My mother had come over at some point today and stocked my fridge—again—and I didn’t even know they were in there.

“I’m here because I’m helping set up a network where other birds like Lark can be sent,” he said. “And her name was Rita, not Lark. But my guess is that she will never go by Rita again. You might as well continue to know her as Lark.”

Lark paled even further and leaned her butt against the kitchen table as she started to shake.

I walked to her and pulled her into my arms, sending Rafe a glare.

“She’s wondering if I’m the real deal,” he said. “I just had to make her realize I was.”

“Why haven’t you introduced yourself to me?” she questioned.

“Because you didn’t need to know me.” He paused. “Now you do.”

Mr. Mysterious right there.

“Rafe.” I pulled my hand up to pinch the bridge of my nose. “For the love of God. Stop acting like this and just fucking tell me what’s going on.”

“I already did,” he said. “I was hired by an organization—the same one that set her up here—to make sure that this place is a safe one. That the point of contact is on the up and up. Which he so obviously is not. But I got distracted by the fact that Harold had his fingers in so many pies and forgot to tell them that they needed to hold off on sending any more of their little birds. Seems Lark was sent before the Freebirds received that message. Which I’ve already informed them of, by the way. I told them I would watch over her while she was here, otherwise she would’ve been moved three weeks ago.”

“You knew I was having trouble?”

He nodded. “I paid off your car loan, by the way. Ridiculous that they didn’t do that before, but it’s been fixed. They’re normally fan-fucking-tastic. Something happened that made them drop the ball there, though. And I have a hell of a feeling that it was Harold—Harold who was never supposed to be a contact if my sources are correct. But since I’d been watching him, I decided to wait on telling them anymore until I had the full picture.”

“And do you have the full picture now?”

He shook his head. “I was trying to do it delicately. However, with him calling the mayor on you today, I realized that since he’s not playing nice, I don’t have to either.”

“Rafe?”

Rafe’s dark eyes turned to Lark.

“Yeah?”

“If you paid off my car loan…where is the car?”

He frowned. “Wasn’t it the one you’re driving?”

We both shook our heads.

“That’s a friend’s car,” I said, not willing to get into that whole bucket of worms.

“Interesting,” Rafe said, tilting his head to the side. “I’ll have to look into it…you’re not the first person to pay off a car loan or pay off the back payments, and not get their car back.” He turned to me, his eyes calculating. “How many cars do you pick up a week for him?”

I shrugged. “Three or four. Harold’s bank is the only place to get a loan, car or otherwise, in three counties, unless you do it online. If he doesn’t do it, then it’s unlikely that people can get one unless they have perfect credit and can hack an online loan. A lot of them default. There’s not much work to be had in this area of Texas. If you’re not an oil-field worker, at the factory, or working for us, then there’s nothing here. You have to drive to everything around here and to drive, you have to have a car. To have a car, you have to be able to pay for it. To be able to pay for it, you have to have a job, which you need a car to get to. It’s a vicious cycle, and Harold doesn’t just know this, he’s banking on it.”

“That’s the truth,” Lark muttered to herself.

“I’ll look into it.”

Then Rafe was gone just as suddenly as he came.

Lark turned to me, and she winced.

“You’re still mad.”

I nodded.

“At me?”

I nodded again.

“I didn’t mean to.”

I gave her a look that clearly relayed what I thought about that statement.

“I’m sorry.”

I turned away and opened the back door for the dog, who went out just as quietly as he’d been sitting there the whole time.

After he finished his business, I let him back in, all the while keeping silent.

“This is torture.”

I looked at her over my shoulder.

“I swear, if I thought that you weren’t going to get hurt, I would’ve told you…” she looked down at her hands. “He’s going to try to kill me, and he’s going to be wearing his Sal, ‘the good ol’ boy cop who wouldn’t hurt a fly’ cloak. And if you try to protect me, he’s going to kill you, too.” She looked away. “I love you, Baylor. I don’t want to see you die.”

I walked up to her and stood there until she looked at me.

“Look at me,” I demanded.

She did.

The moment I had her eyes, I moved in until my lips were hovering over hers.

“I won’t die.”

“You don’t know that.”

I grinned. “He might’ve thought he could come here, into my territory, and take you back. Hurt you. But he’d be wrong.”

“You don’t know that.”

I looked at her, dead in the eye, and let my mask slip.

“Is he only a cop?”

She swallowed and nodded.

“Was he in the military?”

She shook her head.

“Nothing special other than the cop portion?” I pushed. “He hasn’t branched out into the SWAT team or anything?”

Again, she shook her head. “No, nothing like that. He’s been a beat cop for as long as I can remember. Every once in a while, he runs the traffic cop shift. He went to college and got a degree in art before he went to the police academy…why?”

I smiled.

“I haven’t always been a tow truck driver. I joined the military when I was seventeen. I know my shit. I learned the hard way how to survive. I was in for quite a long time. And most of that time, I was special ops. Trust me when I say I can handle myself. He might be a cop, but he’s never had to fight for his life from what you’ve just described to me. I have. He can think he’s on top here, but he won’t be. I will be. I promise you that.”

Her eyes were pleading when she made eye contact with me.

“If something happens to you…” she breathed. “I won’t survive it. He’s taken everything from me. My parents. My brother and sisters. My babies. I can’t let him take you, too.”

My eyes were harsh.

“Your sisters? Your parents?”

She looked away.

“They thought my marrying Sal was the best thing in the world. We lived in poverty. My dad was a construction worker. My mother didn’t work. My sisters and I were all very close in age. Getting rid of me meant getting rid of that extra mouth to feed. Though, they only ever did that when I was home on Christmas break or during the summer. That extra body to clothe. It was a really good day for everyone. Even I was excited.” She breathed out harshly. “Weeks later, when I told them that he was abusive, my mother didn’t believe me. She thought it was just me being upset about the baby—which was my reason for marrying him so fast.” I paused. “My sisters hated me because they liked Sal. They were mad because I got him and didn’t want him. I stopped talking to them a really long time ago. It’s been years since I’ve even seen them.”

I went to her then, unable to stand having her so far away from me any longer.

“Lark?”

She looked up just when I gathered her into my arms.

“Yeah?”

“Kiss me.”

I didn’t make any more promises. It was what it was, and I wouldn’t be able to prevent whatever was going to happen from happening. I could prepare for it, though. I could also show her that no matter what, she was important to me.

I would not let her down.

“Okay,” she breathed.

Then her soft lips were on mine.

I was still sweaty from my run, but she didn’t seem to care.

Hell, she was practically touching every inch of my body, running her soft hands down the swells of my pectoral muscles, up over my shoulders, and down the length of my arms.

All the while she kept her lips on mine.

Then her tongue hesitantly licked my parted lips, darting inside quickly before pulling out again.

Three times she did this before my frustration was complete, and I took the kiss over.

I inhaled her, breathing in her scent while sucking her tongue into my mouth.

Our teeth clicked together as I tilted my head and deepened the kiss, charming her tongue with mine.

Soon she was pressing against me, and I realized right then and there that I wouldn’t be able to wait very long.

It’d been days since I’d had her.

I’d done her so thoroughly that even I was sore the next day.

But with the rush and bustle of the last couple of days, we’d done nothing more than heavy petting before one of us either had to be at work or go to sleep.

Now, though? Now I was going to take her like I’d been dying to do.

I wanted her, and I wanted her bad.

Pressing my cock into the apex of her thighs, I maneuvered her until I felt the couch at the back of my knees, and sank down. I pulled her with me, settling her on my lap.

“Roll over.”

She frowned at me, pulling away and looking dazed.

“What?”

I moved her until she was lying on her back across my lap.

Seconds later, I had the zipper and button of her jeans undone, and I was shoving them off of her hips roughly. Frantically.

“Holy shit,” she breathed, helping me now at seeing my urgency.

I chuckled darkly and pulled her back into my lap once she was naked from the waist down.

“Need you.”

I couldn’t even talk in complete sentences at this point, my desire was so fierce.

I wanted her.

I was mad as hell.

And those two things weren’t a very good combination.

I couldn’t think straight. Couldn’t convey what I wanted to convey.

I’d never been good with words to begin with.

Hell, I’d almost failed my English class in high school because I couldn’t write a goddamn paper that I’d known about since the beginning of the semester.

But I’d always been good with my hands.

And I was showing her that now.

She liked what I was showing her, too.

Her hips lifted, knees spread, and suddenly she was giving herself to me completely.

Eyes glazed, she watched me play with her. My fingers started at the top of her knee and moved in at the same pace until both hands were in the crease where her thighs met her hips.

I squeezed lightly before sweeping both thumbs up and out, brushing both digits over the neatly trimmed hair of her pussy.

“You ever shave?”

She shook her head. “Never had a reason to.”

I grinned. “I don’t care. Bare. Hair. Your pussy is pretty, and I can’t wait to taste you.”

Her eyes widened when I parted the lips of her sex and dragged one thumb down the length of her sex, only to push directly inside once I felt her opening.

“Baylor.”

Her words were husky, and I couldn’t stop the growing smirk from filling my face.

“Yeah?”

“You make me crazy,” she breathed. “Just do it.”

“Do what?” I asked, teasing her by pressing my thumb in and out of her entrance, spreading her growing wetness until it coated everything that I could reach without moving my hands.

“Fuck me.”

I shook my head.

“I don’t want to fuck you…not yet.”

“Then what do you want to do?” she snapped. “Knit?”

I burst out laughing and pulled her in close.

“I want to taste your come on my tongue,” I said. “I want to drink it from you as you orgasm…see if it’s sweeter that way than when you’re just aroused.”

She looked up at me with hooded eyes.

“H-how are we going to do that?”

She eyed the back of the couch with concern.

I chuckled as I fell sideways, positioning my head in the middle of the cushions.

“Sit on my face.”

She brought her hand up to my beard, running her fingers lightly over the closely-clipped hair.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

I did the positioning for her, making sure she was comfortably on my face before I flicked the tip of my tongue over her clit.

She moaned into the empty house, her hands dropping down to the cushion right above my head.

And then I devoured her.

Licked. Sucked. Pulled the lips of her sex into my mouth and bit lightly. Basically, I did everything I’d wanted to do to her since the first day I’d seen her in those tight ass jeans. The denim had been spread so tightly over her ass that it’d taken all of my control not to ask her out.

God, I’d wanted her.

Still wanted her.

Badly.

It was a dream come true to have her sitting on my face.

My dick was straining against the zipper of my pants, and I reached one hand down and unbuttoned, releasing my cock from its confines.

The sweet relief of having it out didn’t last long because the moment she felt what I was doing, she started climbing off me.

“What…”

Then she turned around, presenting me with her ass once again.

I groaned and pulled her in, hooking my hands around her hips as I brought her back to my mouth.

“Fuck!” I said the moment her mouth came into contact with my cock.

I’d had blow jobs before.

When you were a Hail, it was hard to find a woman who wasn’t willing to offer you anything you wanted sexually. But this woman? With her hesitant mouth and light touches on my balls? She had the power to break me.

The timidity of her actions had me squeezing my eyes shut and arching up into her mouth.

She let me fuck her face, and I continued to fuck her pussy with my tongue.

I’d arch my hips, rock up and pierce her wet heat with my tongue. Over and over and over again.

And then she lightly dragged her nails down the skin of my balls, and I moaned into her pussy.

“Fuck,” I breathed, giving her clit one last flick before I bodily picked her up by the waist and swung her around.

She gasped at my show of strength and grinned when I positioned myself at her entrance.

“I would’ve moved,” she said huskily.

I shrugged and grasped my cock, notching myself at her entrance, before I guided her hips down.

She obliged, taking all of me in one fell swoop.

The moment her hips met mine, I guided her back up.

The pace was fast, exhausting.

I was frantic, moving her hips up and slamming her back down while she rode me.

Too frantic, apparently, because I wasn’t paying enough attention.

And she broke my dick.

***

“It’s mild,” the doctor said. “As bad as it looks, I’ve seen worse. If you think about it, there are two cylinders called the corpus cavernosum that fill with blood during arousal. Once those cylinders are filled, the penis becomes rigid. During intercourse, if the penis were to bend—like yours did—then those spongy cylinders can rupture. Or, in your case, become strained. That equates to the soreness and the tender feeling. However, since your penis is no longer hard, I have no doubt in my mind that it’ll heal on its own. I would suggest two weeks of no intercourse, and if you have problems urinating or becoming erect again after two weeks, then you need to make an appointment with a urologist.”

I was sick to my stomach, and not just because my dick was sore.

I’d broken my dick. Need I say more?