Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Josie
King lets out a low groan as I bob my head on his cock. Each time he gets close, I pull back and nip his thighs or trace the crease between his balls with my tongue. I don’t want him to come. Not yet. Not while I’m still reliving that moment where he almost asked me to stay and I almost said okay.
I pretended I didn’t understand what he meant by those few words, but I knew there were more words to be said. He just didn’t have the courage to say them.
And I lacked the courage to hear them.
Come tomorrow, I’ll be left with the memory, and he’ll be blissfully unaware that he almost made the biggest mistake of his life. Thanks to that gummy, he won’t recall almost asking for the strings he vehemently denies wanting. He won’t remember a damn thing about this night.
Well, except for this blow job. I don’t see how he could ever forget the way I’m choking on him.
He leans forward and grips the hem of my shirt, raising it up my back. “Damn. I love the way you arch your back while you suck me.”
His hand drifts lower. He squeezes my ass until it hurts, and his hips rock his dick into my throat.
“Let me fuck you, my beauty,” he whispers as I gag. “I want us to come at the same time. Let me feel you wrapped around me.”
I gulp air as I pull away from his throbbing cock. I rip off my tank top, then step out of my underwear. He fists himself, holding his girth ready for me as I climb over his lap and seat myself on the first try. We groan and moan, a harmony drifting between us with each rock of my hips.
“Wait,” I say. “I want you to wear the vest.”
“Now?” he asks, thrusting into me.
“Yes. This might be my only chance. Once you sober up, you’ll never agree to wear the vest again.”
“Fair point.” He smiles at me. “But I’ll only agree if you wear yours too.”
“But of course,” I say, climbing off him. “Keep stroking your cock for me. I’ll be right back.”
I shuffle to the closet on shaky legs and ease open the door. I spot the vests tucked around a box on the top shelf. I pull the first one down and slide my arms through the holes.
“There is something so sexy about having part of you hidden from me.” The corner of his mouth ticks upward. “There is something so sexy about you. In general. Always.”
“Don’t make it weird,” I say as I reach for the other vest. It tangles around the box, which falls to the floor.
Papers fall out, and I hurry to stuff them back inside. Once the box is back on the shelf, I tiptoe back to the bed and toss the blazing orange material onto King’s bare chest.
He sits upright and pulls on the vest, and I climb onto his lap again.
He pulls my breast through the orange slit and sucks my sensitive nipple into his mouth.
My hips buck on his cock, and I pull his head closer.
I want him to suck harder, and it’s as if he reads my mind.
He sucks so hard that it hurts. My eyes roll back, and pleasure rockets between my legs.
“Fuck, I’m close,” I whimper. I rock faster on his cock.
“This vest really does it for you, huh?” he whispers against my chest.
I grind harder, faster. “No. You do it for me, King.”
He growls against my breast, then nips the pale skin. “Am I the only one?”
“Yes.”
He pulls my nipple into his mouth again, and his hands squeeze my hips until I’m certain I’ll have bruises for weeks. It’s enough to send me into a spasm, and my pussy clamps down on him.
His head tips back, and the veins in his neck bulge.
Warmth floods me as I come on his pulsing cock.
The orgasm rips through me, and I can’t stop the low moan from rolling out of me.
But as he fucks me harder, as he comes deep inside me, that moan turns into a guttural cry.
I’ve never had someone bury themselves this deeply.
He grinds into me until he’s spent, and as I come down from the high, I push my hands through his salt-and-pepper hair. I stare into his eyes.
And I wonder how many years it’ll take to recover this time.
His arms wrap around me, and he pulls me against his chest as he lies back. He eases my face toward his, but then he remembers just before his lips touch mine. His path deviates, and he kisses my forehead instead.
“Why won’t you let me kiss you?” he whispers.
I ease back down his body so that I can rest my head on his chest. “Ask me again when you’re sober, and I’ll tell you.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
“Right when you’re prepared to tell me your secrets, I’m higher than Afroman on the twentieth of April. The timing never lines up, does it?” King places one hand on my lower back, and the other strokes my hair.
I trace the curve of his pec with my fingertip. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to tell him and treat this as sort of a test run. It’s not as if he’ll remember anything we talk about.
But as I open my mouth to tell it all, a low snore rumbles out of his chest. I raise my head and see that his eyes are closed and his jaw is slack. Poor guy. I must have worn him out.
Careful not to wake him, I ease his arms out of the vest, then remove mine as well.
I go to tuck them back against that box in the closet before climbing into bed beside him.
I have to get some sleep. After the event tomorrow, I’ll tell King everything.
Then I’ll let him decide what to do with that information.
For better or worse.
A large convention room clinks and clanks with the sounds of a bunch of serial killers building remote-control soapbox racers. This can’t be real life right now.
“Did you tell him?” Cat asks as we attach wheels to a very janky frame.
I shake my head and glance over my shoulder, but King is still occupied with Bennett. He’s giving him and Aven a crash course on information-extraction evisceration. The guys nod as he presses a curved blade to a tied-down man’s stomach. The man screams behind lips that have been sewn together.
Since the coast is clear, I feel safe enough to speak. “I’m thinking about telling him tonight. We have a date planned for after the event, and I figure that’s a special enough moment.”
“Do tell.”
“A few stops ago, he mentioned something about chasing me through the forest. It’s not anything I’ve ever done, but I figured, why not?”
Cat nods and swipes a bit of sweat from her brow. “Are you worried it might make you feel unsafe? What with your past and all.”
“A little,” I say, “but we have a safe word.”
“Don’t tell me it’s pineapple.” Cat groans.
“Squash casserole, actually.”
King shouts something, and Cat and I turn in time to see entrails fall like a pink curtain.
Loops of intestines hang to the man’s knees as he stares down at his impending demise with a muffled scream.
Bennett tosses the curved blade in his hand, and King wraps his arm around his shoulder and gives him a congratulatory man hug.
“Aw, he did it,” Cat whispers. “He’s been trying and failing for months. He couldn’t get the guts to fall cleanly, and the victim usually died shortly after, leaving him no time for suffering. I love this for him.”
“Yeah, King’s an excellent teacher. He showed me everything I know.”
We get the final wheel secured and step back.
“I’m just glad King came into his life. When Jim told Bennett there was nothing more his medical team could do for his mother, it was like King knew how badly Bennett needed a parent.
” She folds her arms over her chest. “I don’t think Bennett realized just how badly, but King did. He really stepped up.”
“He’s the sweetest, most terrible guy I know.” I tighten a loose bolt and drop the wrench to the table.
“For what it’s worth, I hope it goes well when you tell him. I know the other girls were hesitant about you and King at first, but I’ve been shipping you two from the start.”
“Even when he pushed me into the fucking lake?”
She shrugs. “What’s a little attempted murder between lovers? Bennett and I couldn’t stand each other at first, but getting locked inside a cabin changed our minds. The heat of passion makes you do crazy things.”
Like shove marshmallows into your pussy? Yeah, tell me about it.
King and Bennett head toward our nearly finished racer as Aven meanders back to his group with Quinn, Eve, and Gary.
Staffers scurry like ants to clean up the evisceration demonstration in the back, while a few others begin wheeling some of the event Cattle into the room.
Once we’ve bolted them into their death machines, we’ll load them into a large truck and make our way to the canyon.
“Thanks for showing me how to do that,” Bennett says to King as they draw closer to us.
“And thanks for being on my team for the event. You didn’t know this, but when I was younger, I saved up for a month to buy an entry into a soapbox derby.
I didn’t mention it to my ma because I didn’t want her to feel bad that she couldn’t pony up the fees, but it didn’t matter anyway. ”
“Why’s that?” King asks, and I feel bad for listening in, but I can’t help it.
Bennett chuckles, but there’s a sadness to it. “I had the money for the entry fee, but I had nothing to race and no one to help me build something. The event organizers wouldn’t even return my money.”
From the corner of my eye, I spot a wheelchair moving toward us. This one’s different from the rest, however. The Cattle strapped in this seat wears a big red bow. The staff member parks the chair in front of us, and Bennett and King step closer.
“Hey,” Bennett says as his eyebrows pull together. He looks back at King and points at the chair. “That’s the guy! That’s the sonofabitch who took a little kid’s money and wouldn’t give it back. How’d you do this? I never told anyone what happened to me.”
King shoves his hands into his khaki pockets. “You might have thought no one knew, but your mother was more aware than you realized. She mentioned it during one of her spells, and the orderly jotted it into her notes. I merely paid Ezra handsomely to track him down and procure him for us.”
My heart swells in my chest. I wasn’t kidding when I said he’s the sweetest, most terrible man I know, but it still shocks me whenever I see these little moments of absolute kindness from him.
It’s like witnessing a tigress nursing a newborn lamb—wholly unnatural and kind of unsettling, but genuinely heartwarming.
“This was really sweet of you, King,” Cat says as she pushes the chair closer to the racer. “I know it means the world to Benny Bear.”
“Don’t call me that in front of people,” Bennett says with a quick swipe of his eyes. He turns to King. “But she’s right. This means more than you know.”
Cat pulls a familiar purple toothbrush holder from her back pocket. “Don’t forget this,” she says as she hands it to Bennett.
King and I exchange a glance, and I cringe internally when I remember where that thing has been.
“Ready to go for the ride of your life, Ma?” Bennett pinches a bit of dust from inside and places it into a locket, which he affixes around the Cattle’s neck.
The staff have already been instructed to leave this locket behind when they retrieve the remains and wreckage.
He steps back and studies the writhing man strapped into the seat. “The Grand Canyon is about to get a little grander today.”
There’ll be something else attached to a few of the cars as well: more letters for Daddy Carter. I often wonder when that illustrious asshole will make his appearance. I want a front-row seat to his downfall when he does, that’s for sure.
Once our special guests have been caged inside their death traps, the staff collect the vehicles and get them loaded. Several limos wait just outside the facility doors, ready to ferry us to the actual event location. We pile into a car with Cat, Bennett, Ezra, and Kindra.
“At least the weather is more forgiving today,” Ezra says. He reaches over Kindra and grabs a bottle of bubbly and a glass. “This will help take the edge off.”
“Why are you on edge?” I ask.
Kindra smiles and pats his knee as he tosses the glass aside and gulps from the bottle. “He’s had a few bad run-ins with heights. He’s not a fan.”
“I suggested Yellowstone,” Ezra says. “The acid geysers would have done all the heavy lifting for us. But no, Jim insisted on the Grand Canyon. The only fond memory I have of heights is tainted by my father and the fact that no matter how hard I try, I can’t recall his damn face.”
He tips the bottle against his lips once more, putting an end to the conversation.
The limos rock along until we eventually wind up at an empty dirt parking lot.
Red rock stretches as far as I can see. Jim explains that we’ve been taken to a closed section of the canyon for our special event.
The powers that be didn’t want us fucking up the natural wonder, so they agreed to our game only if we’d launch from this section where we’re less likely to damage something important.
They haven’t met our merry band of idiots, however. If something can fuck up, it probably will. That’s what I’ve learned since joining their weird little crew. We’ll just have to wait and see what goes wrong this time.