Chapter 6 Keep Out
KEEP OUT
AUSTIN
Sprout actually thanked me for not following him home. I rode up to Poppy’s house, cutting the engine and letting the machine coast into her driveway.
The light over the garage went on. It wasn’t a motion-activated one, and soon Poppy stood in the doorway, waiting for me.
I walked the bike into the space where the asphalt widened until it was conveniently hidden behind a bush.
I locked it down and met her in the divide between house and yard, light and dark, truth and, ultimately, lies. “I can’t.”
“Please don’t go.”
I shook my head. “I can’t stay away. As much as I should, I can’t.”
Her smile started small, but got bigger with each step into her life.
She locked the door. Her hand stroked my beard, tangling into the thicker regions and tugging me toward her lips.
I kissed her softly until her breath brushed my skin.
Then I deepened the kiss. This time, I led her.
The hallway off the living room had a bathroom door, open.
Another door with a huge, suspiciously real-looking, “Keep Out” road sign, after that was a door too narrow to be a bedroom door, so it had to be a closet.
But at the very end was heaven. Poppy’s room.
It was painted green and had bamboo mats mounted on the far wall, hiding what I assumed was her closet.
Lush painted leaves and flowers adorned the other walls, but not the bright kind on her jacket, these were softer.
Like her skin. Gentle, like the curve of her breast. Sensual.
Like the taste of her pussy. I fell under her spell completely.
She was sweet and salty, smooth and fierce.
I lingered over her shivers and kissed them calm.
Like waves beating the shoreline at night. We were carefully wild.
And when she’d gasped my name and panted for more. I paused for only a moment.
The condom in my hand was one of three. When I grabbed them on my first solo shopping trip, I got the smallest package possible, because wasting money on an unknown was a luxury I couldn’t afford. Now I was cursing myself for not buying the big box. “Hold that thought.” I tapped her parted lips.
Her skin had a rosy flush that made her tan deeper. Her eyes sparkled as they tracked the way I rolled the protection on.
“You’re big.”
Oh yeah. I’d heard that once or twice. “I’ll be careful.” She was precious, and I took extra care to rub the now-covered tip in her juices. At the apex, she gasped.
“Found your clit.”
“You found that with your tongue. Twice.”
More than that, but two heart-breakingly beautiful orgasms worth. Suddenly, I didn’t know if I’d last. I breathed out, notching in that sweet spot. “Relax your legs. Let me do the work. For now.” I wouldn’t mind it at all if she climbed on top of me later.
A pulse flickered to life near my balls. I counted in my head and let it die out as I eased in.
“Oh. That feels.” Her mouth widened, but no sound came out.
“Good, I hope.”
“Holy fuck. Yes. Please?”
Her fingernails dug into my ass. I kept moving slow because I didn’t know how I’d not blow my dick off if I didn’t use every bit of concentration on keeping things tight and locked down.
No wild man moves, just steady and slow.
Get in there, big guy. Let nature work. Come on. Count to thirty. That sort of shit.
Her walls twitched around my shaft. “Fuck, Poppy. I’m not going to last if you keep doing that.”
“Doing what? Is it wrong?” She was desperate, but still digging her fingers into my flesh and urging me deeper.
“No. Nothing wrong. Too right. Too tight. Too long since I—” my words cut off because I seated deep.
“Oh.” Her breaths came faster. “That’s hitting things my gynecologist can’t touch.”
I backed off an inch.
“Oh my god, omygodmygodyes. Please.” The claws came back out and kept me from losing my mind. I stroked in again. And this time she arched with me, helping me find that soft gap behind her cervix where the walls of her vagina welcomed me home and home again. And yet again.
And that was all I could remember. It wasn’t much longer before Poppy tensed into a shaking ball of moans that got loud. I covered her mouth so we wouldn’t wake her sister. I let her up for air almost immediately because she was pulsing around my dick so hard I was going to—
And my vision went black for a second as the blood went south and I had the no-shit-best orgasm ever.
Well, at least in the last ten years. But if it wasn’t the best, it was definitely in the top three.
I was sucking wind like I’d ran for my life.
I crumbled around Poppy, almost unable to hold my weight off her.
“You good?” It came out in gasps.
Her nod kept going. “G…uh huh.”
I’d fucked her speechless. If Sprout were here, I’d get a high-five for that.
Cue record scratch. I was still inside her, and softening by the second, and there would be no bragging about this one. Never.
“I’m going to pull out now and take care of the condom, okay?”
She nodded again, but at least managed a smile. It glowed with feminine satisfaction. I did that. I kissed her, because it was so pretty. She was pretty. And I was fucked seven ways to next Sunday because I didn’t regret a damn thing.
I returned with a towel and a washcloth. She got shy for a moment.
“Let me.” She tried to tug the damp cloth from my fingers.
“Hell no. I wanna see.”
She froze. “You do?”
I sat back on my knees and showed her my now flaccid dick. “You did that. It was rock hard. Hardest I’ve been in almost a decade, and now? It is fucking happy.”
Her fingers traced a tattoo on my stomach. “I made your dick happy?”
“Babe. Happy as fuck. Let see you.”
She slowly opened her legs. I wiped her clean and patted the tender flesh with the towel. “You may want to hold that there.”
“Am I bleeding?”
“No, I was damn careful. The pressure might feel good though.” A heating pad might feel better, seeing as it was her first time. That was a conversation from the past I didn’t want to remember. I blew out a breath to shove it away.
She curled up with the towel in place and stared at me. “I don’t want you to leave.” This time, she traced the flames inked on my forearm. Her finger trailed up and stopped on my prison web.
“One. Two. Three…”
“Hey.” I stopped her finger.
“Does Dad have his years on there?”
My breath caught. Lifers measured their time in decades.
In jump counts. Tattooed in names of loved ones who’d moved on.
They moved on for everyone. A parent, usually the mom, was the last to let go.
Except for Pinner. Poppy hung on for him.
I kissed her forehead and tossed the washcloth toward the hamper in the corner.
“He’s got a few.” I stretched out and shifted around until we both found a little web of comfort clinging to each other.
She’d traded the towel for my leg, and we discovered my hand fit the curve of her hip almost perfectly.
I woke twice before dawn. The first was barely after I dozed off. She went to the bathroom and then checked on Lily.
The second time, I stared at the ceiling and tried to remember if my cell’s ceiling was farther away or closer. I decided it was closer.
Then in the morning, Poppy’s kisses started my day just fine.
After that, there was only one condom left out of the three pack.
I dragged my clothes into her hall bathroom for a quick shower before I had to hightail it back to the junkyard to grab my work clothes and gear, and then get to work. I was just coming out and getting my pullover on when the door across the hall opened.
The infamous Lily staggered out looking like a paint factory threw up on her face. Mascara and eyeliner smeared into a mess that some called “smoky eye” but was better described as meth special.
She yawned, and the absolute lack of resemblance to Poppy shocked me. But she did look a lot like her mother, Jewel. It soured my stomach to know her mom knelt at my feet and pawed at my pants the first night I got out. Thank God it went no further than that.
Her eyes flickered open, and she stopped abruptly. “Austin?”
Poppy gasped and stopped dead in her tracks where the hallway met the split between kitchen and living room. “You know him?”
“Know him? Who do you think I’ve been fucking for the last five days? Why are you here?” she asked me.
“I’m not.”
“You fucked her? Then you …” Poppy looked like she was going to cry.
Lily’s gaze bounced between us and me coming out of their bathroom. It didn’t take her long to figure out what was going on. “Oh, fucking shit. You asshole!” She flew at me with fists and broken fingernails, and I had to use some force to keep from getting torn apart.
“Control your sister,” I begged.
Poppy flushed red. “Get… out.” It was said in that slow, staccato way, only a woman can manage. She pointed at the front door and her color turned darker still. “Get the fuck out of my house.”
Lily began screaming at Poppy. “You slept with him! How could you! I called dibs.”
Meanwhile, Poppy pointed at the door and didn’t waver. “Now.”
“Aaaahrgh!” Lily tried one more time to gouge my eyes out, so I broke free, knocking her into the wall, grabbing my vest, and fleeing. Right before I opened the front door, Poppy changed her mind.
“Take the back door, I don’t want the neighbors seeing you. They’ll call dad.”
Fuck that. I opened the front door and strolled out in my socks. Until my coat hit me in the back. I barely caught it before it hit the ground.
I hooked it over Pinner’s saddlebags and backed it out of the spot. I set the kickstand down to retrieve my things.
“I need my boots.”
“Fuck you. We’re keeping them!” Lily screamed out the window.
Poppy blocked the door. “You stay right there, I’ll get them.
” She came back with them in her hands. She threw them at my head one at a time, taking her sweet time to aim true.
I dodged the first one and caught the second.
I couldn’t understand a word either of them yelled, but it reached shrieking levels.
A dog woke up and started barking. The neighbor across the street came out in their bathrobe, cup of coffee in one hand.
He took a sip and enjoyed the floor show.
“I’m leaving.” I told both the neighbor and Poppy on repeat as I hopped on one foot to get my boots on. “Don’t call the cops. I’m leaving.”
“That’s right. And don’t come back, asshole!” Lily yelled it loud enough at least three more neighbors peeked out their doors or windows to see what was going on.
As I rode past, boots untied and still trying to get my coat on, their stares followed me, taking note of the colors on my back and the two women I’d left behind.
I was fucking screwed.
Instead of hiding or running, I hauled ass to the junkyard and locked the bike down in front of the club.
Jackson’s bike was still warm where I held my hand by the block, so I knew he wouldn’t be balls deep in some hanger.
I straightened my too-small vest, retied my boot, and strode in a beeline straight upstairs to face the music.
“You fucked Poppy.” He had a stiletto in his fingers and twirled it under a fingernail to dig the dirt out. It was an exercise in finesse and a clear intimidation tactic.
“I did, but I swear on my bike, on my cut, and on my life, I never touched Lily.”
Jackson sent me an unamused look. Finally, he set the knife down. “Lily’s fucking nuts. No big. Poppy however.” He shook his head. Paused, and then started shaking it again. “Pinner is going to call a hit on you.”
“I know.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed the space between his brows, staving off a headache. Then he dropped his hand to the desk and looked me in the eye. “You know what? Fuck it.”
“Fuck it?” Did that mean I was out? Would I even have a job? Was he going to let me hang in the breeze? I was a dead man, if that was the case.
He nodded sharply. “Yeah. Fuck it. We’re Destroyers. Fuck it.” He leaned back in his chair and rocked as he studied me. “She’s single. She was willing, right?”
I nodded.
“Fuck it. How was she?”
“No.” I warned him off with that and a raised finger.
He shrugged and started laughing. “I had to try. I mean, Pinner’s kid? I hope like hell it was the best sex you ever had, because it is probably going to be your last.”
“Very funny.”
He sobered. “I’m serious. Yeah, you fucked up. But I’m not going to kick your ass for it. Pinner can do it, if he can find you. It’s been nice knowing you.” He stood up and held out his hand as if I was supposed to shake it.
“What the hell are you doing? I’m staying.” An idea bloomed in that low sleep haze that dogged my tracks since busting a nut inside Poppy’s sweet pussy. “I’m staying, I’m going to keep fucking Poppy, and one of these days, she’ll be my old lady.”
Jackson held his breath for a full five seconds before he doubled over laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Wolf limped in, a little rough around the edges.
“Dude is a fucking walking dead man and he’s cracking jokes.” Jackson pointed at me and kept laughing so hard he wheezed. I’d never seen him like this.
“What did you do?”
Jackson interjected before I could explain. “He fucked Pinner’s kid.”
“Lily?”
Jackson smiled a Cheshire grin and his eyes lit up. “Nope. Poppy.”
“The fuck you say.” Wolf took a step back and his left hand fisted.
“She’ll be my old lady.” I tried. I really tried to convey the anguish in my heart.
His jaw dropped open. Slowly, his fingers unclenched. Then his chest started shaking. His shoulders shook, and he tried to deny what he was hearing. “You’ll be dead first.” The dam broke, and he joined Jackson, both of them laughing at my expense.
“Hey, what gives? I’m the funny one, remember?”
Oh, fuck. Sprout.
I stepped in front of him and spilled out my sins before Jackson or Wolf could rat on me. I ended with, “I’m sorry man, and I’m not sorry. I will do right by her, I promise.”
For as long as I’ve known Sprout, I never quite knew exactly how tall he was until that day.
He towered over me. And I was staring up into my best friend’s face, and it wasn’t his face there.
It was the ghost of his father staring down at me with murder in his eyes.
“You better. If you don’t, Pinner won’t have to put a hit on you. I’ll kill you myself.”