Rhodes

Prologue Use Your Words

Rhodes

“Why are there a hundred of you here?”

Glancing up, I can’t help but smile at the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my entire life. She has gorgeous brown eyes, jet-black hair down to her shoulders, and more facial piercings than I’ve seen in a while. I have my eyebrow done like her, but she also has her lip, nose, and dimple pierced, and she looks so angry it takes everything in me not to just wrap my hand around her throat so I can make her feel good.

Something tells me this one is a handful. Whether it’s the ripped leggings, the crop-top with a skeleton hand throwing up a peace sign, or the scowl she seems to own, I’m not sure, but fuck me, I already want to put her on her knees.

“Scoot, giant. Let me sit next to my girl.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I slide out of the booth to let her in and take a hard look at her perfect ass, speaking to her again before I reach out and touch something that isn’t mine. Yet. “My name is Rhodes, by the way, but ‘giant’ works just fine.” I keep my eyes on her as Jagger warns me to stop, but I don’t give a fuck what he thinks. He’s never taken my advice, so why should I take his?

He distracts me by bringing up his mom, then makes me laugh when he asks Remi if she called her friend here for backup. No shit, though his words remind me why nearly my entire friend group is here. My best friend and business partner Jagger Diaz has never once taken a girl seriously until he met Remington in the most bizarre way possible, and every single one of us had to make sure she was real. I mean, there’s no way the same chick that ran him off the road and then had to sit back while he sued her actually agreed to date him. That shit sounds like a horrible made-up plot for a porn.

“Do you blame her?” Mila cuts in. “I walked in to find her looking like the chick at the beginning of every bad porno ever. Like Frodo when everyone started fighting over the ring, but all five of you are fucking Boromir.”

Not only does she think about porn scenarios like me, she’s a nerd to top it off. I swear my dream woman just walked into this dumbass restaurant. It’s only solidified when she does the cutest food dance I’ve ever seen. I won’t let this one slip through my fingers. I just have to get her to give me the time of day and then I’ll get my hooks in her.

Simple as that.

Once we finish eating, I swoop in to open up that line of communication again the second the table has a brief moment of silence. “So, Mila. Are you single?”

She stares at me for a few moments like she can see my motivations written all over my face, and then says, “Nope.”

That’s it.

Fucking nope.

That won’t do. “Too bad. I was going to ask you to hit me with your car, but alright.”

It makes Adrian laugh so hard soda comes out of his nose, but the girl has to be some sort of machine. She doesn’t even crack a smile. “Come outside then,” she quips. “I don’t need to be single to cause violence.”

Goddamn, this is going to be harder than I thought.

I laugh it off like I’m not in my head about it, but the truth of it is... I am. I get it, I’m not everyone’s type, and she doesn’t have to be interested in me — but I saw the look in her eyes when she first saw me.

There’s no fucking way she doesn’t find me attractive.

The rest of the dinner goes in Jagger’s favor, and with a little help from our group chat’s message thread, I know Remi is walking out of here knowing that Jagger is serious about them. It makes me really happy for him, but after they ride away on his bike, I find myself wishing I had a girl of my own... or at the very least, that I would’ve brought my motorcycle so I could ride away from these inconvenient ass thoughts.

I don’t have time for this. What I do have time for is the mean-looking chick strutting her way over to her white Equinox like her boots are walking on water. “Hey, Mila,” I call, moving away from my Tacoma so I can get closer to her. “Where are you heading off to?”

She pauses with her hand way too close to the door handle. “You don’t listen well, do you?”

Tilting my head, I fight the urge to argue with her and shrug it off. “I listen just fine. Didn’t hear you say where you’re going, though.”

“I’m going home. The ‘not listening’ bit was about me having a boyfriend.”

I’m not dumb, I know she’s single and fucking with me, so I can’t give her the upper hand here. “Yeah, well, I don’t listen to lies. That’d make me an idiot.”

“Then you don’t take hints either, which still makes you an idiot. I may not have a boyfriend but that was me trying to let you down easy.”

I hear her, I do, but I also see the way she’s turning toward me, not away from me. I see the smirk playing at the corners of her lips and the way her eyes are raking down my frame.

“You’re not the type to let someone down easy. Clocked that the second you walked up to our table like you owned it. If you wanted me to fuck off, you’d have no problem saying the words, would you?” There’s hardly any distance between us now, and all I wanna do is close the rest of it. “So go ahead, Mila. Use your words.”

Before she can, I reach up to pretend like I’m wiping food off her cheek when really all I’m doing is getting my first real feel of her.

Fuck, her skin is soft.

“I—” Her breath hitches as she reaches up to wrap her hand around my wrist. “What do you want?”

Five words, and not one of them was fuck or off. It makes me smirk. “I want to hang out with you more tonight, unless you have plans you can’t get out of. Kind of why I asked where you’re heading.”

She hums, splaying her hand across my chest with a teasing smile. “If I said I was free, what would we do? Go lift weights?”

Snorting, I glance around the parking lot to ensure my nosey ass friends all went home and then reach out slowly to ghost my hand along her hip. “Sure, if that’s what you like to do in your free time. If not, I can be the one lifting and you can just hang on for the ride.”

I didn’t mean to jump right to fucking her because I actually did want to get to know her a little better, but now that the words are out, I feel some of the blood in my body traveling down to its favorite place. Fuck talking, we can do that shit later.

Something flashes in her eyes I can’t quite read, but she steps closer to me and I find I don’t care what it is. “You think you can handle me?”

“I know I can. It’s you I’m worried about, sweetheart. I don’t plan on just bending you over and taking what I need.”

“Really?” she snorts. “That’s exactly what it sounds like to me. So how about you quit talking so much and just do it, hm?”

Talking about your dick game never bodes well with women until you back it up, so I step away from her with a grin and take her hand, tugging her along toward the dark alleyway. “How attached to those leggings are you?”

“I love them so much I own three pairs. Are you serious though? The fucking alley?”

She sounds more nervous than offended, so I reach out to lift her off the ground with ease and walk faster. “Can’t do what I need in a car. Not even my truck has enough space.”

“Fuck it then. Alley it is.” She kisses me, catching me off guard as she sucks my bottom lip between her teeth. It sends a jolt right down to my cock and has me hardening for her more with every step. I move her position around so she’s straddling me just as I reach my destination, pressing her against the wall to take control of that kiss and grind myself against her heat.

The way she moans when she feels me strips away any lingering doubt I might have. Yeah, she wants me too.

Maybe almost as much as I want her.

We stay there for way too long making out like we have all the time in the world, and I don’t stop until her panty little breaths sound almost frustrated, because that’s exactly how I want her. I want her dripping for it. “Since you have three pairs of these, I’m going to take you how I want to.”

With the wall helping me hold her up, I reach between us with one hand to rub her pussy, grinning when I feel how wet she already is for me, and then I grip the fabric with my fist and tug hard so it splits straight down the middle.

“Fuck,” she gasps, glaring at me like she wants to hit me. I almost wish she would. “You better have a dick made of gold, Rhodes. Give it to me.”

Leaning in, I bite her neck hard enough to make her flinch and then suck a mark on the skin while I reach down to pull a condom from my pocket and get myself out of my jeans. “Patience, sweetheart. You’ll have it soon.”

It’s a struggle getting it on without dropping her when I’m too fucking hard to concentrate, but she hangs on tight until I’m ready to go and she’s tugging my head up to kiss me again.

I fucking hate condoms, but the second I move her thong to press the head of my cock to her clit and roll it around, I focus solely on how she reacts to the sensation and tease her a little more. “Dripping already, girl.”

She snakes her hand down to guide me where she wants me, chuckling breathlessly when she feels what I’m packing. “Be gentle with me, giant. I’m fragile.”

Yet she sinks down before I was ready for her to and tips her head back, lips parted in shock and pleasure. There’s nothing fragile at all about this woman.

Grinning, I thrust myself deeper and catch her groan in my mouth, sucking the pained noises straight from the source as I ruin her for anyone else right here in a restaurant alley. “You think you can take it?”

I reach one hand up to wrap it around her throat promisingly, holding her there so she can’t look away as the apprehension gives way to something stunningly defiant. “I can take you, Rhodes. Is that all you’ve got?”

“Feisty little thing,” I tease, slowing down so I can grind myself into her and give her more of me with each push inside. “Your fake boyfriend can’t fuck you this deep, can he?”

I snap all the way in before she can speak, hoping the scream she lets out doesn’t draw attention to us. Nails digging into the back of my neck, she clenches around me and bites her lip to keep herself quiet. “Deep is overrated. Lungs can’t orgasm,” she quips.

Chucking, I start fucking her a little faster, using my left hand to keep her in place so my cock can hit all those neglected spots inside of her with every thrust. “Talk a lot of shit for someone who’s this close to coming,” I taunt, squeezing her neck a little tighter. “You trying to deny me, woman?”

She pushes into my hand with a playful fire in her eyes. “You think you’ve got me that close already? I don’t know who you’ve been fucking, but—”

I shift just a little and watch her eyes roll, grunting as I feel her pussy pulsing and squeezing my cock.

It makes me huff out a laugh, because she can posture all she wants to, but I see her. I feel every twitch and clench her body gives me, every cut her nails leave behind as she secretly allows herself to enjoy what I’m giving her, and I know without a doubt that she needed this.

Pulling out, I reach underneath her to curl my fingers in her pussy and press directly onto her g-spot. “Give me more, Mila. For once stop being a stubborn little brat and give in to what your body craves. Come for me.”

“Oh god,” she whimpers, thighs shaking as she struggles to hold onto me. She’s almost there when a car drives past the alley and I think I might’ve lost her, but one look at her proves she fucking loves it. I feel the orgasm around my fingers as she squirms, solidifying that my read on her is correct. I’ve got her right where I want her.

I push myself back inside before she can catch her breath, groaning at how fucking warm she feels as she clenches around me and takes me like the good girl we know she can be. “There she is,” I praise. “Pussy is mine now.”

“Not yours,” she laughs, kissing me before I can argue. “Mine. I’m just letting you borrow it.”

Yeah, we’ll see about that.

Bet this woman is in my DM’s asking for more by tomorrow.

Good thing I’ll want to give it.

“Still talking shit, huh?” I breathe, fucking her harder against the cold, unforgiving wall, and when I feel my orgasm building I have to close my eyes and will it away. I’m not done here — I don’t want to be done, but fuck it’s so hard not to come when she looks, feels, sounds and smells this good. “Fuck.”

“Come on, baby,” she whispers. “Give in. It’s your turn to come for me, don’t fight it.”

“Shut up,” I grunt, kissing her to keep her mouth from coaxing me to the brink faster than I’m already getting there, but it’s too late. Every time she clamps down on me I swear I feel myself leak into that stupid fucking rubber. “Goddamnit, I’m gonna come.”

The growl I release is almost angry at the fact that she can’t take my load like she’s meant to, but I still shove myself as deep as I can go when I release, pumping that rubber so full I feel it seeping down my shaft.

“There you go,” she teases quietly, kissing the corner of my mouth. “Now put me down and take off your shirt.”

“In what world were you in charge here, huh?” I pull back to see her face, keeping myself inside of her for as long as I dare, but I really do need to set her down before I accidentally leak inside of her and knock her up in this alleyway.

Why the fuck did that make my cock jump?

“In all the worlds, Rhodes. You didn’t do anything I didn’t let you do, which means I’ve got all the power. Now put me down and take off your shirt.”

My cock slips out of her before I can argue further so I don’t this time, setting her down on wobbly legs before handing her my shirt. “Stealing my clothes already?”

I focus on getting myself out of the condom and tucked away as she takes her ripped leggings off, ditches her crop top and slips my shirt over her head. “You’re so tall this is basically a dress for me, which is better than showing the whole parking lot my pussy when I walk out of here. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

“It looks better on you anyway.” I take her crop top from her hand and tuck it into my back pocket to hold as collateral, but I don’t miss the way her gorgeous brown eyes glide down my toned frame. Yeah, we aren’t done here. “Let me have your number.”

I hand her my phone and give her a second to type it in, then pocket it again as she takes a step back from me. “It was fun, giant. I’ll see you around.”

“Like that?” I follow her to our cars with my eyes on her ass the whole time, and by the time we reach them, I’m ready for round two. She looks way too stunning in my plain black tee. I bet she’d look good in anything.

“Hey, we did it your way,” she laughs. “I agreed to hang out, you went straight to sex in an alley. I think that gives me the right to blow you off now so I can go home and rot on my couch like I planned to. Thanks for the O’s, though.”

The little brat winks at me before getting in her Equinox and shutting me out, leaving me to stand here and watch her drive away.

Thinking back, I try to pinpoint where I fucked up an offer to hang out, and realize I was so focused on our sexual tension I probably missed it entirely. She’s not wrong, though. We did it my way and I got exactly what I wanted, yet I still don’t feel done with her.

Not by a long shot.