Chapter Four
Wade
“I can explain,” Max said as he leaned on the edge of the pool table in the basement.
Jake sat in the old recliner letting out a yawn. I grabbed the stool in the corner and dropped my ass down on it. I took my pack of cigarettes out of the pocket of my jacket, lit one and took a puff. Then I crossed my leg over my knee and looked at Max.
“Fine. Explain. As quickly as fucking possible. I haven’t had decent sleep in days.”
And I doubted I would be able to have one now after what I had just come home to.
Max drew a breath. “Three days ago, I was riding up Harrison Hill and in the middle of a downpour, and I nearly ran over a woman. That was who you saw in the kitchen.”
“You mean the one you hit second base with on the counter a few minutes ago?”
“You and Lauren were doing what?” Jake looked completely awake now, eyes wide.
Max put his hands up. “The attraction was mutual and the physical contact was consensual. And completely unexpected, trust me. Not to mention amazing.”
Jake said nothing.
“I already saw it,” I told Max. “I don’t want to fucking hear it. And I’m still waiting for a fucking explanation.”
Max turned his attention back to me. “Her name is Lauren, and I told the hospital she was my girlfriend so they wouldn’t have to call the cops.”
I took my cigarette out of my lips. “Wow.”
“As it turned out, she has no family and a case of amnesia. She had nowhere to go.”
“So you brought your fake girlfriend here?”
Max glanced at Jake. “Actually, that was Jake’s idea.”
I raised an eyebrow at the leader of Black Storm. “Really?”
That was even more surprising. I knew Max was staying away from women but he wasn’t exactly closed off to them, either. I knew I’d eventually find him with one, though maybe not one that was living with us for obscure reasons. But Jake? Well, I never…
“Really,” he answered. “Like Max said, she has no one and nowhere to go. And it was Max who sent her to the hospital. It was the right thing to do.”
I sighed, resigning myself to defeat. I had known them both long enough to know that Max, as easygoing as he seemed, had a stubborn streak, and once Jake had made up his mind, that was it. There was no use trying to talk sense into either of them.
I took another puff of my cigarette. “I sure hope you guys know what you’re doing.”
Unlike me, neither of them had ever really lived with a woman before, so maybe not, but they had already made their bed. I could only hope they wouldn’t fall out of it badly.
Max nodded, a serious expression on his face. “I do.”
Jake stood up, walked over to me and gave me a pat on the shoulder. “We’ll be okay.”
Right. We’d already been through so much together. We’d survived hell. How hard could having a woman under our roof be?
Apparently, quite fucking hard.
Lauren didn’t even talk a lot like my ex-wife. In fact, she hadn’t spoken a word to me since we met. She didn’t watch TV too loud, or at all. She didn’t dress like some of the girls who came to Billie’s. All she had on was a gray shirt and a pair of black cotton shorts that covered half her thighs. She didn’t try to flirt. She was just there.
And I was completely aware of it.
As I stood on the patio smoking a cigarette, I felt on edge, like a soldier on duty. I couldn’t stop myself from looking back inside the house every now and then, curiously watching her as she tried to find her way through the kitchen.
Just a few seconds earlier, I had caught her with a pout and her eyebrows furrowed as she stared down Jake’s jar of pickles that she had found in the fridge. After opening it, she took a sniff and made a face. I nearly laughed.
Now, she was playing with her hair as she stared at the ingredients she had gathered on the counter. First, she smoothed her hair back, gathering most of it into a messy ponytail, then she let it go, the strands tumbling down her shoulders and back. Afterwards, she grabbed a few strands of her hair then started coiling them around her fingers, letting the tips caress her cheeks like a brush.
My pulse quickened. A hot lump formed in my throat and I swallowed.
Fuck. That was hot.
As she reached for the cupboard to the right of the stove, the hem of her shirt went up and I caught a glimpse of bare skin. I found myself wondering if she wasn’t wearing a bra just like last night.
I could still remember Max stroking her nipple. Now, I imagined it was my hands squeezing her breasts beneath her shirt, my rough palms rubbing against them, my fingers twisting and tugging their stiff peaks. My cock throbbed, approving of the idea.
Whoa, soldier.
I tried to pry my gaze away so I could calm myself down, but then, Lauren grabbed a stool to prop herself up on to reach the cupboard, and I realized it was the stool with the uneven legs that Jake had asked me to fix a hundred times but which I kept forgetting to.
Fuck.
I got rid of my cigarette and opened the patio door, dashing into the kitchen. One moment Lauren was looking at me with wide eyes and the next, she gasped in fear as the stool wobbled beneath her, desperately trying to hold on to something to keep herself from falling. I managed to get to her quickly and offered her my arm. She grabbed it and leaned on me as she got off the stool and back on her feet.
“Are you okay?” I asked, wanting to make sure she could stand on her own before I let her go.
She nodded but didn’t move away, her hand on my arm and the other on my chest. The floral scent of her shampoo drifted into my nostrils. My pulse skipped.
I gently pushed her away. “That was fucking close.”
Too close.
“You could have ended up back in the hospital if you had fallen and hit your head on the counter. Then again, who knows? Maybe you would have been able to regain your memories if you did.”
Lauren’s jaw dropped. “Wow.”
Oh, shit. I said that all wrong, didn’t I?
I had forgotten how women had a way of making me mess up with my words. Clearly, they still did.
Lauren crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, then I guess I’m lucky you were around, keeping an eye on me from the patio.”
She noticed? Fuck.
She touched her chin. “You know I was going to apologize for what happened last night, but, then I remembered you were watching me then, too. You were just standing there looking at me. Max said you used to be a Marine, so you know how to be stealthy. I wonder, if Max hadn’t noticed you there, would you just have stayed in the shadows watching?”
I frowned. “I was simply in shock.”
“Really? Well, you did look a bit uncomfortable.”
“How could you tell? You couldn’t keep your eyes straight.”
She blushed. I grinned.
What? Did she think she was the only one who could play this game?
She squared her shoulders. “Luckily, I can see better now. I know you’ve been watching me.”
“Watching over you,” I corrected her. “I just wanted to make sure you didn’t cause any trouble. And you almost did, didn’t you?”
“Right. Because you don’t want me here.”
“Fuck yeah. Why would I want to complicate my life dealing with a woman who doesn’t even know who she is?”
Lauren’s shoulders sank, the fight in her eyes fading and the blood draining from her face.
Fuck. I messed up again, didn’t I? I went too far.
Lauren looked away. “Well, I’m sorry I’m complicating your life. I promise I’ll try my best not to cause any more trouble than I already have.”
I sighed. “Lauren, I…”
She started to walk away. I wanted to grab her arm. I wanted to pull her into my arms and tell her I was sorry, and I didn’t mean the things I said. Hell, I wanted to kiss her and make her forget all of it. But I didn’t.
I just let her go, curling my hand into a fist as frustration welled up inside me.
It was better for me to keep my distance from Lauren. I would only end up hurting her after all. And she already had Max. She didn’t need me.
And I damn well didn’t need her.
I told myself that over and over, staying away from Lauren for the rest of the day. When she went out with Max in the evening, I finally felt a sense of relief, thinking I could cast her out of my mind.
But no.
As I lay in my bed, all I could think of was Lauren. The smell of flowers from her shampoo. The feel of her small, soft body in my arms. The sound of her moans and the look of pure pleasure on her face as Max touched her, her green eyes shimmering beneath half-closed eyelids, her cheeks flushed, her lips wet and parted.
I closed my eyes, trying to dispel the images, but they just grew clearer, vivid portraits illuminating the dim corridors of my mind. My hand moved to my crotch. My cock was already rock hard.
I pushed my pants and my boxers down, freeing my cock from its stifling prison. Then I wrapped my fingers around it. As I started stroking myself, I threw my head back against the pillow, savoring the friction and the electricity it sent buzzing through my veins.
I imagined it was Lauren stroking me, her lips wrapped around the leaking head of my cock while her hand moved up and down it. Her moist eyes glossed over with the haze of lust looked up at me, locking me in, daring me to keep gazing at her as she took me closer and closer to the brink of madness.
Her hand, my hand, moved faster, furiously. That gaze of hers had unlocked a beast inside me, and it roared to be satisfied. My breathing grew ragged. My thighs trembled. Every muscle in my body became taut. Heat swirled in my balls.
I came imagining it was Lauren’s mouth I was shooting my cum into as I gripped her hair. I shuddered as I unleashed every drop, emptying myself of every ounce of pent-up lust and searing frustration, and when I was done, I opened my eyes and stared at the gray ceiling as I chased after my breath.
Only seconds later did my mind start to clear, and as I looked at my fingers coated in my own semen, I realized what I had just done.
I had just jerked off to a woman I’d only just met and barely knew, one who probably didn’t even like me. Worse, she was Max’s girlfriend. Well, not his real girlfriend, but he had already kissed her. I wasn’t supposed to even think about her.
But I had. I had fantasized about having her, and I enjoyed every second of it.
And the worst part? I wasn’t satisfied. Not in the slightest.
Even as the air in my room was still full of the smell of my sweat and my orgasm, I wanted more of Lauren. I wanted the real her.
How fucked up was that?