13 - Rafe
Rafe
I dropped the barbell onto the matted weight area, exhaling hard as I counted out my last rep for my final set of deadlifts.
My muscles were already screaming at me but that's what I'd needed, especially after meeting up with Thorne.
As always, there was good and bad news. On the positive side, I was getting a gold star for effort on my parole. On the not-so positive side, Nick and his guys had actually managed to track me down. Which meant that they were definitely going to reintroduce themselves.
I grabbed the water bottle waiting for me near the rack and gulped down as much as I could drink.
The only thing stopping me from cranking out another set was the fact I had work tomorrow and injured Raisers don't get paid. But I was desperate for something, for some kind of distraction from the fact that my life was kind of exploding all over again.
It wasn't enough that they'd let me take the fall the first time around.
Knowing Nick, that wouldn't matter. If anything, it would put an even bigger target on my back.
I wasn't that same kid they could fool anymore, but I also had more to lose now than I did then.
Things were finally starting to feel like they were getting better and now…
My eyes flickered to the gym entrance. Those sneaky fucks would look for any chance to try and get their hooks into me again, but I'd rather they found me away from the firehouse.
The thought of them going there instead broke out a sheen of cold sweat on the back of my neck that had nothing to do with the workout I just powered through.
My phone buzzed in my gym bag with a text and I fished it out. Lauren?
Ballbuster: Hey. Where are you right now?
Me: It's late, Lauren. Is this a booty-call?
Ballbuster: Don't flatter yourself. Seriously though, where are you?
Me: The gym. If it is a booty-call, I expect flowers at least.
I chuckled at the thought of what her face might look like when she read my reply, then tossed my phone back in the bag and got onto the Smith machine and decided to push myself to do a few bench presses.
It wasn't enough. I was exhausted but my mind was still running wild with the possibilities of what that tip-off from Thorne entailed.
I didn't know how I was going to face this without torpedoing the little bit of stability I'd managed to earn for myself in the years since.
It'd been fourteen altogether. I wasn't about to lose anymore.
When I finally dragged myself to the shower, my mind wasn't any less busy than it'd been before despite the exhaustion of my body. Not even the jets of hot water managed to soothe the tension from my muscles the way it usually did.
I got cleaned up, even washed the sweat from my hair. After probably too long, I reached for the towel I'd slung over the rail, only to realize it was gone.
I blinked the water from my eyes and looked around, thinking it'd fallen somewhere.
“Looking for something?”
I turned around to see Lauren holding it hostage, a small smirk on her face. I guess she wasn't kidding about the booty-call.
“So you were serious?” I commented, then pretended to look around her. “I don't see any flowers, by the way.”
“I wasn't sure what to get you. What do ex jailbirds like other than killing themselves in the gym at ten at night?” she mused.
My eyes widened, my heart stopping in my chest.
“You know about that,” I said flatly.
She nodded.
I watched her carefully, trying to see if I could pick up on any of her thoughts. She didn't look at me with the kind of judgment I'd grown used to since I was released from Stateville. She didn't look scared or put off.
In fact, the only thing I could pick up on is that she looked very, very turned on.
I wanted to ask her how she found out. I wanted to ask her what she thought about it all and how much she knew.
But she was looking at me like she wanted to devour me and finally, the background noise of my mind was starting to die down.
“You planning on holding onto that towel?” I asked.
She nodded, throwing it off to the side like a gauntlet. A slow smile spread on my face. Well, if she didn't want me to get dry, I supposed I'd have to get her wet.
I stepped toward her in one single movement, grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the shower with me. She immediately wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me.
Oh, this was what I needed. She was exactly what I needed.
Lauren's body drove away the storm of anxiety that had been clouding my mind and all I could think about was the slickness of her now soaking clothes, the heat of her and the taste of her mouth.
She'd been drinking. I ran my tongue across her bottom lip, chasing the ghost of whatever she'd been sipping on.
She wrapped a leg around my waist and I lifted her up, shoving her against the wall of the shower with a thud that I felt against my chest. She groaned at the impact and I buried my face in her neck.
She bit down on my shoulder, then soothed her tongue over it instantly. The steam and hot water at my back combined with the shot of pain and pleasure had my head swimming in the best way possible.
“Couldn't stay away, huh?” I asked, mouthing her breast through the wet material of her shirt. She gasped at the sensation and pulled my head closer.
“I told you that you're hotter with your mouth shut, right?” she growled.
“Then give me something to fill it with,” I threw back a mirror of her own words at her. “I bet that's what you really came here for, isn't it? Couldn't get enough.”
“Arrogant prick,” she said, shoving me back and finding her feet as I let go of her. The look in her eye was wicked. “But I'm not the one that's going to be screaming.”
“Bold words,” I said, but my cock was already so hard it was humiliating. She looked down and actually chuckled. “Lauren, I hope you realize I'm not going to talk my way out of you sucking me off.”
“I'd prefer if you didn't talk at all,” she said simply, then went down to her knees. She took me in her mouth like she was starving for me and I threw my head back, my eyes pinched shut.
Her flattened tongue swept broad strokes across the underside of my cock, one hand cupping the base and holding me firm as she proceeded to blow my mind.
It wasn't just her technique but her enthusiasm for it.
The way she looked up at me through her eyelashes and held eye contact, dared me to keep watching as she put her mouth on me.
It was like she needed to prove something, or to run from something.
Maybe I wasn't the only one dying for a distraction.
“Fuck!” I groaned out, wrapping a hand in her wet hair. “Oh, just like that. Don't stop.”
My words lit a fire inside of her and she doubled down. She worked my body like an instrument, using the inside of her cheeks and tongue and even the roof of her mouth to stimulate my cock.
I had to focus so hard not to make any of the sounds I really wanted to, and when she saw the effort, she grabbed my ass and took me even deeper into her mouth, encouraging me to thrust into it.
I almost blacked out.
“Easy,” I chided, trying to pull out. She wrapped her arms around my hips. “Lauren, stop, please. I'm gonna come and I don't want to. Not yet.”
She moaned, giving my cock one last luxurious lick before getting to her feet. I felt dazed, as though whatever alcohol in her system had somehow passed to me and made me drunk.
I grabbed her jaw tightly, backing her up against the wall and claimed her mouth with mine this time. I could taste myself on her and the thought drove me even wilder.
“You're wearing way too many clothes,” I grumbled, tearing at them as she shimmied out of them until they lay in a discarded wet pile at our feet. I lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around my waist again, arched her back when I slipped inside her in one go and oh.
Oh.
My world rocked on its heels as my body remembered what she felt like. Her hands dug into my back and I breathed deeply as I tried to regain control. I wanted distraction, not sentiment. She was supposed to feel like fun, not nostalgia.
Our eyes locked briefly. Hers were slightly glazed—I couldn't tell if it was tears or pleasure or tipsiness. I brushed my lips against hers once and then I began to move.
I had no idea where the burst of energy and strength came from but I fucked her like I did the first time. And she held me like she did the first time. Yeah, this was better. Back to normal.
I bit her bottom lip and tugged gently as she began to whine. “I was the one that was going to scream, huh?”
“Shut the fuck up, Merrick,” she gasped.
“That all you got, sweetheart?” I teased.
I was using her old lines on her and I could feel her growl of frustration in her throat as she kissed me. Probably just to get me to shut up.
I stilled my hips and lowered her down. She raised a brow at me in confusion and I simply grabbed her arm and turned her around.
“Hands on the wall,” I mouthed against her ear, nipping at the shell.
She shivered against me but surprisingly complied without a smartass comment. Ha.
My eyes trailed down the back of her. The back of her was just as much a masterpiece as the front.
Her dark, shower-slicked hair was pressed against pale skin, and there was something so erotic about seeing her body wet.
I reached out and brushed the hair off her back and over her shoulder so I could get a better view.
As she shifted and arched beneath my touch, I watched the muscles move, the slight valley that dipped down her spine and eventually came to the swell of her round ass. I tilted my head, enthralled as the breath was stolen from my lungs. Lauren suddenly wiggled her hips.
“Are you just gonna stare?” came the snarky remark. “Or are you actually gonna do something with this.”
I hummed, then reared my hand back and slapped her ass. She yelped, looking back at me in shock. I grinned.
“That work for you?” I asked.
“Maybe,” she mumbled, but she wasn't good at hiding the truth. She rubbed her thighs together the way she did whenever she was really turned on and desperate for something inside of her. And I was going to deliver.
I used my foot to kick her feet apart and grabbed her hips. I slipped my cock between her thighs and felt her tremble. “Ready?”
“Yeah,” she said, pushing back against me. “Come on, Rafe.”
I chuckled low in my throat, then slipped inside. Lauren moaned out loud, her head flopping forward as she tried to find purchase against the wall. I moved with her, my lips pressed against the back of her neck as my body leaned over hers.
Fuck, she felt good. Better than good, too good.
Every thrust brought me deeper inside her body until I bottomed out, the sound of our wet bodies slapping together obscene in the otherwise quiet of the shower. I was so fucking grateful this gym had private lockable shower stalls. That membership had been worth it.
Lauren was breathing heavily between her moans, rocking her hips back into mine and meeting me thrust for thrust. I wrapped a hand around her throat and she covered it with her own.
“So good,” I groaned, pressing my forehead against her shoulder. I felt her squeeze around me and nearly came on the spot. I used my free hand to slap her ass cheek again and popped my tongue when she cried out.
“You're cheating,” I said.
“Is that how you cope when you can't handle it?” she mocked.
I was looking down, hissing at the sight of my cock going in and out of her pussy. And then I had an idea. She liked to talk. I was going to see how long she could keep that up.
I changed my angle and began regulating my rhythm when her breathing changed. That was it. Right there.
I let my thumb drift down to the cleft between her ass cheeks, right above where my cock was making her lose the power to form syllables. I ran my thumb gently over her asshole and she clenched down so hard on my dick that I choked on a groan.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, going still to look back at me.
“You don't like it?” I asked. “I won't do it again if you don't. I'm sorry.”
Conflict warred on her face. She thought about it for a moment.
“I've never had anyone play with me there before,” she said finally.
It was such a rare show of vulnerability from Lauren that my heart felt like it was constricting.