Chapter 19 Annie
ANNIE
Between my father, Neveah, and the really nice officers who sat down and took my statement, I finally feel like I have answers.
They still haven’t charged the custodian at the school who stole my keys, ransacked my room, and left me the threatening notes that Engler paid him to leave, but they have him in custody and are questioning him.
As far as I know, within the next few days, this whole mess will be behind me.
Martin Engler must have figured out that my dad was onto him.
It seems like he wanted the password to my father’s trust account so he could clear it out and run before he was arrested on so many counts of fraud, I lost count.
My father told me everything. That he paid my way into art school and hired Neveah to keep me safe.
Turns out, I’d had security all along. I just didn’t know it.
Thankfully, when I’d told Neveah about the notes, she’d realized something had changed and that Engler was about to make a move.
The cops got their warrant and were ready to close in on him.
The fact that he threatened to kill me is recorded on Josh’s glasses cam.
If they can use the video as evidence, maybe that’ll ensure Engler spends even longer in prison.
Jerk.
I’ll bet when he asked me to dinner that night, he wanted to find out what I knew about his little side operation.
Or maybe he was going to try to get the password out of me then.
I feel almost sick thinking what desperate measures he might have gone to if I actually had gone to dinner with him that night.
This story might not have had such a happy ending.
By the time the hotel lobby clears out of most of the law enforcement personnel, I’m exhausted and starving. I kiss my father goodbye.
“You coming home tonight, honey?” he asks, looking at Josh. “We’re safe now. You can go back to school, come home…anything you want. We’re both free.”
“And broke,” I remind him. “I can’t believe how much you spent to protect me, Dad.
” He hasn’t told me how much it cost, but when he told me what he did, I immediately felt sick.
I’m sure Dad spent all his savings and dipped into his retirement to make sure I was not hurt by the investigation into Engler.
“Annie.” My dad reaches for my cheek and holds my face with one hand. “You are the most important thing to me in the entire world. I don’t need money if I don’t have you. And if I didn’t have you, money would mean nothing. I’ll earn it back. You’re safe. You’re here, and that’s all that matters.”
My father reaches out a hand to Josh. “Send me your bill,” he says. “I’ll take care of your expenses and all your time.”
I look to Josh, relieved that he won’t be out the money he’s spent on not working for other clients because he’s been with me, but Josh shakes his head.
“Thank you for the offer, Mr. Hancock. But I wouldn’t take your money. Not for this. Not for her.” Josh shakes my father’s hand and then turns to me. “Do you want to go home with your father, babe?”
The way he says “babe” sends my heart into a frenzy. I lace my fingers through his. “What I really want is some dinner and maybe to watch some baking shows.”
He tightens his fingers around mine. “Tiny.” Josh’s voice carries over the sounds of the diminishing crowd. The massive man lumbers over to us and claps Josh on the shoulder.
“Yo, what’s up, Arrow?” He nods to my father, and my father reaches out a hand and introduces himself.
“Thank you for giving my daughter a place to stay when she had no place else to go.” Dad motions to me. “Honey, give me Tiny’s contact information. If you ever need a real estate attorney, I’m happy to help you in any way I can.”
“Yeah? We’ve been working with this attorney we call Fingers. I don’t know if you know him…”
Tiny and my father turn to walk away when Josh calls after him, “We’ll clear out of Crow’s room tonight, man.”
Tiny waves a hand. “Stay as long as you need. He ain’t using it.”
Josh turns back to me. “One more night with the bikers?”
I give him a smile. “On one condition.”
I’m about to say it, but Josh gets the words out first. “Pancake Circus?”
If I didn’t know it before, I’m sure now. I just might be falling in love with Josh.
By the time we say our goodbyes and another round of thank-yous to Dog, Eagle, Morris, and Alice, I’m way too tired for Pancake Circus. And those are words I never thought I’d say.
We climb into Josh’s truck and pick up fast-food burgers, which we eat on the drive back to the compound.
“What’s next, babe?” he asks, reaching across the seat for my hand. “You should be safe if you want to go back to school.”
I nod, thinking the question over. “I’m not sure, to be honest. I have a lot to think about.” I trail my fingertips over his strong hand. “Josh,” I say, growing serious, “we were in real danger tonight. Engler had a gun under his jacket.”
I see Josh’s jaw muscles clench through the soft brown hairs of his scruff. His lips are tight. “I know he did,” he says. “But we’re safe now.”
“But you do this for a living,” I remind him. “Have you been in this kind of danger before?”
He tightens his fingers around mine. “Yeah, Annie. I have.”
We’re both silent then. I’m not sure what to say. I have no right to ask him to change his life or his career for me, and yet I can’t help wondering whether he would if I did.
When we finally arrive at the compound, the place is lit up like Christmas. Tiny, Dog, and Eagle are in the kitchen, smoking cigars and reliving the night. They have drinks, and they look like they’ve been having some kind of fun.
When we get inside, Dog roars out Josh’s name. “Arrow, you sonofabitch!”
He steamrolls over to us in a cloud of cigar smoke and practically lifts Josh off his feet with a rowdy hug. I can’t help grinning. These bikers are everything I expected them to be and somehow more.
Tiny jerks his thumb toward the back part of the compound, where Crow’s room is. “Take a load off till tomorrow. You got someplace better you’d rather be?” he asks.
Josh looks at me, and I shake my head. “Thank you all again so, so much.”
The guys take turns giving me hugs, and then Josh and I head back to Crow’s room.
Once we’re inside, Josh locks the door, and I start to peel off my clothes.
“I’m dying for a shower,” I say. “All I can feel is Martin Engler’s eyes all over me.”
“Go on, then,” he says. “Take your time. I’m going to go talk to Tiny. Meet you back here.”
In the shower, I spend maybe too long feeling down about everything.
About losing Neveah as a friend. I don’t know if she plans to keep in touch now that she’s no longer my RA.
I guess she was never really an art student.
I’ll miss her, but what’s even more, I’ll miss the fact that I thought I finally had my life on track. I feel lost. Directionless.
I wash my hair and try to console myself that I’m safe. I don’t have to figure anything out tonight. All I need to do is take things one day at a time. But I think the reality that I really was in danger, still hasn’t fully hit me.
I climb out of the shower and pull on my pajamas soaking wet. I run back to the bedroom and close myself inside.
I sit on the end of the bed, shaking, just thinking about the times when someone knew where I was and what I was doing. Some custodian gave a stranger access to me in exchange for money. I am still sitting on the edge of the bed trembling when Josh comes back into the bedroom.
He must have grabbed a shower after he talked to Tiny because he’s towel-drying his hair. He’s shirtless and wearing a pair of basketball shorts that I haven’t seen before.
The minute he’s inside the room, he locks the door and sits beside me. “Annie,” he says gently. “You’re soaking wet. What happened?”
“I got out of the shower. I didn’t put on lotion. I didn’t dry myself. I…”
The words come out fast, and it’s almost as if I’m freezing. My lips are trembling with something like ice-cold fear.
“Baby,” he says. “I’m going to take care of you, okay?”
He pulls the towel from around his shoulders and uses it to blot my hair dry. He takes clumps in his hands and dries it so gently, it’s as if he’s done this a million times.
“Stand for me, Annie.” I do what he says, and he unbuttons my pajamas and tugs off my shorts. “As much as I want this to be good for you, I’m really struggling seeing you like this, babe.”
I look down and realize his dick is so hard it’s tenting the front of his basketball shorts. I start to giggle, and then I completely lose it. I fall back on the bed, laughing, completely naked, and Josh just shakes his head.
“Do you have lotion?” he asks. “You’re dry, but you said you didn’t moisturize. We can’t let you go to sleep with dry skin, babe.”
Now that I’m dry and starting to calm down, the jitters have passed. I’m naked and laughing with the person I most want to be with in the world. Josh is hard, the television is on, and if I ask nicely, I bet he’ll rub my body lotion anywhere I want.
I’m going to be okay. Life is a mess, and my future is uncertain, but I have my father. I have my safety. I have Josh.
“Lotion and condoms,” I remind him.
Josh claps his hands. “That’s literally my favorite combination.”
I grab a bottle of moisturizer from the toiletries I’ve packed and hand him the bottle. “Where do you want to start?” I ask.
He grabs my foot and tickles the bottom with his fingers. I squeal and pull away. “Hell no. Not there.”
“Okay, okay.” He points to the bed, and I lie on my back. But he shakes his head, sexy grin on his face. “Babe, come on. The ass king is holding a bottle of lotion.” He makes a roll-over movement with his hand, and I obey.
I close my eyes and settle in just as I feel the ice-cold squirt of cream fall onto the back of my right calf. I squeal at the cold, but then his strong hands encircle my leg, massaging the lotion into my skin with firm strokes.
“Annie,” he says, kneading deep into my muscles.
“Can’t talk…” My eyes are half closed and my mouth half open. I’m so relaxed already, I might start drooling on the bed. “Feels too good,” I mumble.
Josh laughs, and I feel the featherlight pressure of his lips as he kisses my butt cheek. “Just you wait, babe.”
“What were you going to say?” I mouth the words against the blanket.
“It can wait.” His voice is thick and gruff, and all sound disappears as he works his way up the backs of my legs. He squirts me with another pump of ice-cold lotion, and the heat of his hands against the contrast of the chilly lotion brings every hair on my body on end.
I feel alive and delicious. I part my legs a bit, giving him access to my inner thighs.
He kneads his way through the tight muscles, and the tension leaves my body.
He massages my left leg, putting as much attention into this one as my right.
By the time I feel his hot hands cup my ass, I’m so relaxed, I’m nearly asleep.
But I wake right up when I feel him settle between my legs. He nudges my knees farther apart, and I feel his breaths teasing my inner thighs.
“Do you like being licked?” he asks.
I grunt, too relaxed and happy to form a word.
He chuckles and then slips his hands under my hips and lifts my body just a little bit so his tongue can reach my pussy.
“Fuck,” I say, able to form that word as I feel his tongue against my wet lips.
My pussy throbs in anticipation, but his licks are light and tentative, like he’s trying to taste his way around every inch.
When he slips just the tip of his tongue a little deeper, into my wet heat, my legs jerk in surprise.
“Good?” he asks.
“So good,” I assure him, lifting my ass a bit to give him better access.
He dips his tongue inside me, but he avoids my clit, which leaves me aroused but desperate for him. I lift my ass higher, but I stop when I feel a very slippery finger slip between my cheeks.
“I’m just going to touch you, babe,” he warns. “Tell me if it’s too much.”
I’m not sure what too much will feel like, but I don’t have to wonder for long. Josh’s mouth is gone from my pussy, but I feel his fingertip push against my other opening.
The pressure is interesting and not pleasurable, but not uncomfortable.
When I feel him push harder, slipping just the tip of a finger inside my ass, I clench up involuntarily.
“Relax, babe,” he whispers. “Just lean into it. I won’t hurt you.”
And he doesn’t. As one fingertip penetrates my ass, he uses a different finger to stroke my pussy.
The pleasure of his touch on my clit contrasts against the tight pressure in my ass, making me feel so many sensations at once, I can’t think straight.
I’m aroused and want more, but I don’t know what I want more of.
I rock my hips, trying to bring him closer, deeper, something, when finally he says, “Flip over. I want your tits.”
While I settle onto my back, Josh squirts lotion onto his hands and uses his damp bath towel to wipe his fingers clean. Then he climbs onto the bed and kisses his way up my calves, thighs, and stomach.
By the time he reaches my breasts, I am aching with need for him. I feel empty where I want to feel full, and my nipples throb in anticipation. I cup my breasts, trying to ease the nearly painful arousal.
He watches me, fire in his eyes as I touch myself. He strokes his cock, thick and hard, and then, as if remembering, he gets up and grabs the last two condoms from the top of the dresser. “We’re going to need both,” he promises.
As he sucks my nipples, I stroke his hair and pull his face closer to my frantically beating heart. “You’re the best fake boyfriend I’ve ever had,” I whisper.
He lifts his face and looks at me, then looks down at my bare chest. He pinches one of my nipples between two fingers, and I suck air at the glorious electricity that floods my body.
“This feels pretty real to me,” he says. “You think this is fake?”
He settles himself between my legs, and I grab a condom, practically dropping it in my rush to tear it open. I hand the coiled circle to him, and I watch as he sheathes his rock-hard length.
“Josh,” I say, reaching between us and guiding his cock toward me.
He doesn’t tease me this time. There’s no start and stop, no milking and toying. He slides himself fully inside me with one deep thrust.
I gasp and wrap my arms around him, fanning my hands along the muscles of his back. He feels so good, so hot and strong and perfect.
“There’s nothing fake about this,” I tell him, wrapping my legs around his waist.
He grips my hips with his hands and crushes my lips with his. “Be mine, Annie. I want you when we don’t have to hide in this room. I want you in my bed and my home and my life. Yeah?”
“Add heart to that, and you have a deal.” I pant the words between every thrust.
He breathes a single word against my lips. “Deal.”