Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
S triker…
My girl was cagey, and didn’t like to ask for help. It was one of her more endearing, yet frustrating qualities about her – her fierce independence. I kept trying to tell her that, yes, I understood that she could do it all by herself – but that didn’t mean I wanted her to. That I was here, and I wanted to help.
She just wasn’t great at cooperating with me on that front – which also suited me just fine because it led to some awesome and sexy funishments. No, you didn’t read that wrong. I mean, sure, I could punish her but why punish someone for a quality that you actually appreciated? No, I introduced my kitten to the word funishment – which was a consequence of her not asking for help, sure – but it also wasn’t too unpleasant for her to be considered a true punishment .
Example: she didn’t call me when her kitchen sink backed up and she needed to take it apart underneath. She should have. She wasted the better part of two whole days on the problem – battling with do-it-yourself online tutorial videos and going back and forth to the hardware store for parts, getting the wrong things and not being able to return ‘em, and a whole host of other headaches. All of which she could have avoided if I’d known the fucking problem… but nope.
I asked why her granddad hadn’t helped her out, and she’d laughed and said he was some kind of retired NASA guy and wasn’t very handy.
Could he math out a bunch of physics shit to the nth degree and bring an astronaut home out of space? Yeah, in his head, almost as fast as a calculator, but put a wrench in his hand? He would ask which end to use – so no dice, there.
So, to teach her the benefit of having me around, I taught her a lesson in just what I could do with my hands and I didn’t get tired.
I made her orgasm until she complained the next day about feeling like she’d had the worst fuckin’ ab workout in the known world rather than a series of never-ending orgasms that had rocked her shit.
So, when my phone rang in the middle of the day and her smiling face flashed across my screen, I was glad I’d just dropped the handset to my desk phone back in its cradle and that I could take her call.
On picking up, I didn’t even get so much as a ‘hello’ before one of her brother’s screaming and crying came through the line. My smile dropped right off my face and I demanded, “What’s wrong? ” before she could even draw breath to speak.
“Aden got his little butt busted and is being way more dramatic than things call for,” she said and I heard her blow wisps of her blonde hair out of her face on the other end of the line.
“Oh yeah? What’d he do?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.
“Flushing things down the toilet that don’t belong in the toilet – and now it’s stuck, Mom’s freaking the fuck out because we can’t afford a plumber, the boys’ bathroom isn’t working, Pops and Mimi are out of town, and it’s not like they’d be much help anyway and I’m officially over here waving the white flag. I need help. Please tell me your offer on emergency plumbing work is still good after the last fiasco?”
I was trying not to laugh, because of course it would be the boys doing and yeah – no, my girl definitely didn’t need to be dealing with icky toilets.
“I’ve got you,” I said. “I can head over in about a half an hour as soon as the shop closes down. Just let me run home and get my truck and throw some tools in the back.”
“Might not need them,” she said. “My dad’s got a garage full of everything you could possibly need for a house. He was the handy guy and could fix just about anything around here and did. I just wished I’d paid more attention.”
“Oh, hey now – don’t beat yourself up, Princess. You’ve got me for all of that now. You know I’m just a phone call away.”
“I know,” she said, but sounded both slightly nervous and I figured that was what was up.
Her mom.
She wasn’t ready for me to really come out into the light as her boyfriend. She was worried about what her mom would think, but honestly – from the little I’d seen of her mom, she seemed like a smart woman if’n a little overprotective. Which I got that.
“No time like the present to rip that Band-Aid off,” I said softly.
“Say what now?” she asked.
“Me meeting your mom as more than just your biker friend…” I said gently.
“Oh, God – you don’t think I’m ashamed of you or something stupid like that, do you?” she sounded aghast.
I chuckled, and said, “No, I know you aren’t baby. Cautious; worried about how your mom is going to feel about it, I get it – believe me… I know how awkward shit can get. I’m down for whatever you need me to be.”
She sighed and it was a defeated sound.
“Right now, I need you to be my knight in shining armor on his iron horse and come slay this toilet dragon,” she said and she sounded tired.
I had to laugh.
“Toilet dragon?” I asked.
“That’s what we think he flushed, a plastic toy dragon figurine, among other things.”
“Wonderful,” I said dryly.
“Oh, don’t even get me started right now. We thought these three skipped the terrible twos and went right over being three-nagers. Nope, apparently, they wanted to pop off at four and they’ve been just awful lately.”
“I think that might be partially my fault,” I said. “I’m taking up a lot of their favorite sister’s time lately.”
“Oh, shit…” she whispered softly.
“Pretty sure I have an idea on that, too – I’ll see you in…” I checked the time again, “About an hour and forty-five tops. I’ll slay the toilet dragon and meet the family and try to be everyone’s sparkling hero.”
“That’s Forks,” Stormy said walking by and overhearing me, and I covered the mouthpiece on my phone and snorted giving him the finger and hoping I didn’t accidentally upset Rarity by having her think I was laughing at her.
“Okay,” Rarity said and she sounded relieved. “We’ll see you then.”
“Okay,” I told her. “See you then, baby girl.”
“I love you,” she said softly, as though trying to hide it but needing to say it none the less.
“Daddy loves you too,” I said with all the fondness and heart melting sentiment that went with it.
“See you then, bye…”
“See you then. Bye-bye.”
We ended the call and I sighed.
“Trouble in paradise?” Stormy asked, and he came back over and dropped into the chair by my desk.
“Ah, nah,” I told him. “Boys decided to flush things down the toilet and got it blocked but good. She was just calling in the cavalry.”
“Ah,” he nodded, “I gotcha.”
“What’s on your mind?” I asked him, knowing the thoughtful look in his deep brown eyes.
He pursed his lips and shook his head and said, “Nothing, brother. Seems like you have it in hand. You happen to need one with the,” he cleared his throat, “toilet dragon, you call on the rest of your knights. You got it?”
I laughed and nodded, “I hear you, King Arthur.”
“…and the knights of the round toilet bowl,” he said and got up, clapping me on the shoulder. We both had a decent laugh and I appreciated him checking on me.
King Stormy and the Knights of the Round Toilet Bowl… Royal Bastards were we.
Jesus Fucking Christ. I couldn’t wait to tell Rarity about this one. She’d definitely get a kick out of it.