Chapter 9
Tits .
— T -shirt
PEPPER
I didn’t rush to answer my door.
The fact that no one ever visited meant this could only be one person.
I glanced around the hotel room that was acting as my apartment.
It’d been the first place I could find to stay the night I’d come into town, and instead of questioning my luck when I saw the HELP WANTED sign at the side entrance—because God forbid you let your ‘esteemed guests’ know you were in need of workers— I’d jumped on it.
I’d even finagled a place to stay out of my volunteering to be on call when I was in residence, and so far, everything was working out great.
Even better, I got to do what I loved—be a nosy busybody.
Another furious knock sounded, and since I was on the floor with actual paying guests, I reluctantly went to answer it so she didn’t create a scene.
When I opened the door, I wasn’t shocked to see a uniformed officer standing there.
I was shocked, however, to see my sister wearing that uniform.
When had she done that?
Or was I just that caught up in not wanting to know anything about her that I hadn’t paid attention to the fact that she was now an officer of the law?
God help the city of Dallas , Texas .
“ Did you decide to dress up for a reason?” I asked.
She lifted her lip up at me with a silent snarl. “ I’m a licensed officer of the law.”
The devilish smirk she wore meant bad things for me.
“ Are you now?” I asked, unworried.
I had cameras everywhere. Two in my hotel room. One down the hall on my left, and one down the hall on my right.
I had great angles of everything that happened next.
That was partially why I’d chosen to take them up on the offer for a room. Mostly great protection from, well, her.
“ I see that you’re skeptical,” she tugged lightly on the badge that was front and center on her breast, “but it’s all real.”
I contained the laugh.
Barely .
“ I’m sure that everything you did while at the academy was on the up and up,” I nodded.
Sage took a step toward me, her anger palpable.
“ You …” she began, but I interrupted.
“ Why are you here?” I asked my sister.
“ I’m here because you can’t seem to catch the fucking hint!” she snarled. “ I want you to stay out of my life.”
I frowned. “ I haven’t done anything to you.”
She scoffed. “ Was it not you I saw with Atlas yesterday at dinner?”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “ That was me taking care of the children of some of my favorite people.”
“ Sure ,” she laughed incredulously. “ And the goo-goo eyes you were making at him were fake?”
Okay , so I was really bad at hiding my emotions.
Sue me.
“ Sure ,” I said sweetly.
A beep of my watch had me glancing down at the time.
I had to go if I was going to make it to the bakery in time to get started on prep work for tomorrow.
“ I will not tolerate your closeness to Atlas ,” she seethed. “ He’s mine.”
“ He is not.” I barked out an abrupt laugh.
“ He is!” she yelled.
I held up my hand. “ Okay .”
“ He is,” she repeated, this time lower. “ And I’ll prove it to you.”
She pulled out her phone, then swear to all that was holy, she cued up some tears and placed the phone to her ear.
“ Atlas ,” she sniffled. “ Please tell me it’s not true.”
I crossed my arms, so ready to see what happened next.
“ You went on a date with my sister,” she moaned. “ How could you do that after everything I told you?”
And , before my eyes, she smiled while still managing to sound like she was crying. “ Really ?”
“ Okay , good,” she said. “ She just told me that y’all were serious, and I didn’t know what to do or say.”
She winked and walked away, giving me the middle finger.
I closed the door on her retreating back, then went to the phone on the counter and pulled up the last ten minutes of video feed.
Then I did what any responsible adult would do… I sent it to my family.
Even my dad.
Throwing the phone on the first available flat surface, I got dressed in a pair of cut-off jeans, red Birkenstocks , and a loose t-shirt that had ‘ Pie Hard ’ on it. Then snatched my phone and my keys.
I then got into the car and drove the twenty-seven minutes it took me to get to Sunnyvale where Maven had opened her bakery after everything that had gone down with the man who raised her.
Letting myself in through the back, I got started on the meal prep for the next day, only coming out to where Maven was manning the front counter when I heard her calling my name.
Maven jerked her chin toward the side, and I allowed my gaze to move, nearly groaning when I saw who awaited me.
Atlas .
Of course, he would come.
I picked up a rag and started to run it over the nearly empty display case.
“ Yes ?” I asked, trying hard not to look up.
“ I heard you were talking shit about me.”
Dammit . I looked up.
I blamed it on his smooth, deep, velvety voice.
“ Did you get everything, or do you need me to repeat it?” I replied caustically.
Atlas Carter’s eyes narrowed on me, and despite my anger at him being in my store, he still had the power to take my breath away.
Atlas Carter was heart-stoppingly gorgeous.
Tall , around six-foot-one or so, with wavy brown hair that looked like it wanted to curl when it rained, brown eyes that reminded me of my favorite hot chocolate drink from the coffee shop down the road, and a build that could break a woman in half if he wanted.
Today he had the makings of a beard, though I was sure by Tuesday at the latest he would have it shaved back into tip-top shape.
The man had a routine. If he was working, his beard would be kept clean. Short , tight lines, and well man-scaped.
However , if he had more than two days off, he would let the beard grow out.
These days were my favorite.
Not only because of the beard, but because of the glasses he had perched on his nose.
The first time he’d come in wearing them, I hadn’t recognized him out of the corner of my eye. But then he’d said something nasty to me, and my heart had skipped a beat.
I didn’t know what it said about me that I liked that he wasn’t nice to me.
Maybe I should be seeing that red flag for the red flag it was…
“ Why do you torture her?” he asked.
I crossed my arms over my chest and tapped my foot for good measure. “ Listen , Clark Kent . I don’t do anything for pleasure. I work. I eat healthy because I get fat if I don’t. I send money home so that we can pay for my dad’s care facility. And I sleep. I literally do nothing for pleasure.”
He frowned. “ What’s wrong with your dad?”
I gritted my teeth, contemplating whether to tell him about my father or not, but then decided… fuck it.
Maybe he needed to understand just how much she was keeping from him.
Maybe if I armed him with knowledge, he would finally open his freakin’ eyes and see what was right in front of him, me included.
“ Dad has early onset Alzheimer’s ,” I said. “ He’s been in a care facility for a couple of years now because he’s dangerous to himself and others.”
“ Was he in there when…” Atlas started, trailing off.
“ When none of us showed for Sage’s kidnapping?” I guessed.
“ Yeah ,” he said, likely looking for a redeemable quality for the horrible picture Sage painted of our family.
“ Yes ,” I said. “ And my mom had suffered a heart attack the day before.”
Atlas blinked.
“ Dad freaked out, because that was one of his good days. He wanted to go see her, but he also has what they have termed sundowning,” I explained. “ Even if he’s having a good day, he’ll digress the closer and closer that it gets to dusk.”
“ Oh ,” he breathed.
“ Hey , Pepper .” Maven came rushing through the door of the kitchens so hard that the door banged against the wall. “ Do you have this? Someone ran over the septic tank at our place, and shit’s spewing everywhere, literally. I have to give consent to the septic guys, and they need me there in person.” She paused halfway through the bakery. “ Shoot , I was supposed to give you a ride.”
“ I’ll get her home,” Atlas called out.
Maven still hesitated.
“ I won’t hurt her.” Atlas rolled his eyes. “ Geez , give me some credit.”
“ I am,” Maven said. “ But you’re a complete asshole to her based on a single person’s point of view.”
I loved Maven .
“ I swear to God , Atlas .” She narrowed her eyes at him. “ Pregnant or not, I’ll kick your ass if you hurt her.”
Atlas nodded. “ I’ll take care of her.”
Why did that send my heart to beating so hard in my chest?
I started closing up the shop, prepping everything for when I came in later to get the baking done.
Luckily , all I had to do was come back and get them into the oven as well as get the display cases stocked. Maven had already done the hard part of getting each of the items prepped and proofing.
When I came back into the main room after everything was ready for me to go, it was to find Atlas sitting at one of the tables, his eyes on the world passing by outside the bakery windows.
My movement caught his eye, and he stood up. “ Ready ?”
“ Ready ,” I confirmed.
He took off his glasses and tucked them into his pocket before taking a pair of sunglasses out of the other pocket and placing them over his eyes.
I kept my gaze on my toes as he held the door for me.
Before I could lock it, he did it himself with a set of keys I didn’t know he had.
Then he was walking silently beside me as we made our way to his truck.
The drive to my hotel was chaos.
The only words either one of us said were related to the traffic or the bad drivers who were passing us.
By the time we got up to my apartment, I felt like the silence was unbearable.
However , instead of leaving when he saw me safely inside, he followed me in, surprising both him and me.
He walked into my place and narrowed his eyes as he took a look around. “ What is all of this?”
I nearly laughed.
I knew what it looked like.
Chaos …everywhere.
I glanced at all the human hair on every available surface and shrugged. “ None of your business.”
I made wigs for a living.
I’d started making them when I was sixteen and my sister thought it’d be funny to cut all my hair off the day before my prom.
Her reasoning for doing so was twofold.
One , she couldn’t stand me.
Two , she didn’t like that I was going to prom with a senior she had her sights set on.
Though , it was news to both me and that senior.
Anyway , the day before prom, I’d had to go to a wig shop to look for something suitable to hide my bald head—though it was only bald because I’d shaved it all the way off after Sage’s hack job.
I’d been desperate, and the wig shop lady, who’d made them all by hand, had been so sweet and kind.
After that, we’d built a rapport, and I’d learned the craft of her trade.
Now , I made wigs for people all over the world.
People sent me the hair—hair that was donated to them by either a family member or a friend—and I sent them back a wig.
I didn’t do it for the profit, though.
I did it because it made me feel good.
That was why I barely broke even.
I wouldn’t charge people at the lowest points in their lives.
He picked up a finished wig that I was sending out tomorrow and inspected it.
“ Do you make these?” he asked.
I snorted. “ I don’t know what gave you that idea.”
He gave me a look that made my knees weak.
I turned my back on him and shucked the t-shirt I was wearing.
I had a camisole underneath it with a built-in shelf bra, so I wasn’t too worried about exposing my body to the man whose eyes hadn’t left me from the moment I’d turned.
I toed off each of my shoes, then pulled off my socks.
I threw it all into the hamper next to the bathroom door, then unbuttoned my jeans.
I caught up a pair of shorts off the floor, then said, “ Turn your back, please.”
I didn’t check to see if he complied.
I only shucked my jeans, very aware that that left me in only a pair of thong panties, and bent over to step into my shorts.
A wheezing breath had me glancing in the mirror.
That’s when I realized my mistake.
The hotel was a fancy one.
It was loft style with a single area in the very corner of the room that was an enclosure big enough to sit on the toilet and close the door.
The rest of it was a very open concept, and there were mirrors everywhere.
It was almost as if this hotel knew exactly what it was getting when they’d made it so upscale.
As if they knew damn well and good that people would come here to fuck, and fuck only.
But the problem with the mirrors was that, even with him turning around and giving me his back, he’d still had a view of me because of the mirror in front of him.
Honestly , he had his pick of which view to take in.
The one in the room that looked down my shirt and had a view of my curved ass. Or the one from the front that had my breasts spilling out of my top as I bent over to put my shorts on.
It was that momentary lack of concentration that had me stepping into my shorts wrong.
I rocked forward as my foot caught on the waistband of my shorts and faceplanted into the bed on accident.
I gasped, pushed up onto my hands, and felt a hard body behind me.
His hands closed on my waist, and I didn’t protest.
He pushed his hips into my backside, and suddenly every hesitation I had was gone, as if it’d never been.
I bit my lip and barely contained the moan as his hard cock pressed into me.
“ You should tell me to leave,” he rasped.
I didn’t say a word.
His hands nearly spanned my entire waist, they were so big.
“ You’re so soft,” he mused, his thumb sweeping from my hip to my side and back.
I swallowed hard, unable to say anything.
“ I want to see what you feel like.” His hands squeezed me tight.
Almost too tight.
“ You should tell me to go,” he repeated, likely trying to tell himself more than me.
That’s when I got angry. “ Or maybe you should stop being a fucking pussy and take what you want.”
That was the worst thing to say.
At least, for his control.
“ Take what I want?” he asked, voice low and scary.
“ That’s what I said, isn’t it?” I pushed.
He smiled then.
I witnessed it in the mirror before he pushed my face down into the mattress, caught my panties in his free hand, and pulled.
He pulled hard, but they didn’t break.
He didn’t want them to break.
He wanted them to rub me wrong.
I squirmed underneath his touch.
“ Clean ?” he asked, sounding bored.
His cock said differently, though, when he pushed it into me again.
I clenched on nothing.
God , I wanted him inside me.
Even if it was just a finger.
“ I had a test completed after my last long-term boyfriend, that was two years ago. And I’ve been with no one else since,” I shared.
He growled, something animalistic and satisfied.
“ I was tested after my ex, too,” he said. “ Clean as a whistle.”
I could feel my wetness now.
It was going to seep through my panties soon.
“ I have an IUD ,” I said.
How we were having this conversation so calmly while he was almost hurting me with my panties in one hand, and my face shoved into the mattress with the other, I didn’t know.
But it was working.
“ Good ,” he drawled as he placed one knee into the bed.
With the hand holding my panties, he yanked, exposing my bare flesh to him.
My nipples pebbled, and goosebumps broke out over every available inch of skin.
“ You look so delicious,” he said as he pulled back.
Both of his hands went to his jeans, tearing away the fabric as if he couldn’t stand it holding him in for another second.
I didn’t move from the position he’d put me in, ass still high in the air.
He came up behind me once he was free of his clothes, and I felt the tip of his cock drag along my wet folds.
I closed my eyes and pushed backward, feeling his cock lodge against my asshole in the process.
Now , I’m not saying that I’m against anal or anything, but the feel of his large cock pressing there sent a shiver of fear coursing through me.
He was big.
Bigger than the single itty bitty plug I’d played with on my own, paired with a vibrator.
There was no way on Earth it was fitting.
Not that it was something I wanted to do today but…
“ Mmmm ,” his voice was a rumbly rasp as he pressed forward a bit harder. “ Not that I’m gonna turn down that invitation.”
I started to get nervous, but he pulled back, his cock now in his fist as he rubbed it up and down the length of my pussy lips, coating himself in my wetness.
I shivered, stunned to silence that we were about to do this.
That his cock was about to be inside me.
That I was about to break the years long dry spell with the man who hated my guts.
A cry left my lips when he started to push inside of me, his cock so fat that it stretched me even with the tip.
“ Shhh ,” he crooned, all rumbly and enticing. “ You can take me. Deep breath.”
I closed my eyes and willed myself to open to him, finding it hard as hell to accomplish when he was as big as he was.
I mean, I’d seen the man in all kinds of outfits.
Police uniform. Running shorts. Sweatpants . Sleep pants. All of the things he’d worn to come into the bakery in the last year.
But nowhere in any of those clothes had I seen something so monstrous.
“ Not a monster, baby.” He laughed, his hand smoothing on my ass cheek to calm me down. “ Just a regular man.”
“ Nothing like a regular man, Atlas .” I gasped as he pushed deeper, my eyes starting to water with the stretch.
“ Holy shit,” he growled. “ You’re too tight.”
Way too tight.
But his hand, that beautiful, masculine hand, reached around my front and expertly found my clit.
I bit my lip, my eyes crossed, and I buried my face into the sheets as a moan escaped my lips.
“ Jesus ,” I moaned.
He circled my clit with rough fingers, not quite touching the bundle of nerves, as if he knew exactly what I would’ve done had it been my own hand.
He worked me, bringing me higher and higher. His back was plastered to my front, and his hot breath was in my ear.
I could feel our hearts pounding in sync as my orgasm built and built.
And just when I felt like I was going to go over, he pulled all the way back.
No finger. No body. No cock.
Then I was screeching out a cry of release as he slammed into me so hard that he hit bottom.
The explosion was… like nothing I’d ever experienced before in my life.
It was life changing. Mind altering.
And only when I came down, when I could finally think again, did he start to move.
He gave me no recovery time.
I went from one orgasm, straight into the next.
And the next.
I’d never come so many times in my life by the time he finally gave his cum to me.
He filled me up, so deep and full, that I knew I’d never be the same again.
I don’t know when he left.
I did know that when we collapsed onto the bed, we’d both nodded off.
When I next awoke, it was to a note on the pillow next to me, and sun streaming into the wide-open window.
I’d forgotten to pull the curtains closed last night.
I blinked a few times to clear my eyes so I could read the words on the paper.
This doesn’t change anything.
No , I guess it didn’t. At least not for him.