Torn - Part Two (The Torn Series) (6 page)

I was still in a dreamlike state when she woke me, knocking and softly calling my name.

“Leave the light off,” I mumbled, trying to wipe the sleep from my eyes. She shut the door behind her and kicked off her shoes at the edge of the bed. I started to push the blankets away but she stopped me.

“Shh,” she said, “I’m getting in.” Stripping down to just her panties, she crawled beneath the blankets and pulled them over us both before settling with her forehead against my chest. I ran my hand along her arm, her skin still cool from the fall night’s air. She slung a leg over mine and said, “Back to sleep, Mal.” She kissed me softly then winked, her face barely visible in the moonlight. “I’ll wake you up early. Promise.” I closed my eyes as her fingers stroked through my hair.

This was bad. This was letting her get too close again. But it felt too damn good to deny. Surrounded by her warmth, her whispered promises and her soft and soothing touch, I sank right back into sleep as I pulled her close and breathed her in.

○●○●○●○●○

I woke first - a fact I was grateful for. I snuck out to the bathroom in a pair of boxers only to find Surly scowling at infomercials on the television - just standing there, frowning and staring off into space. “Something wrong, man?” I asked.

He jerked, startled by my presence. “Oh. No.” He shook his head. “Riley here?”

“Yeah,” I said, pointing a thumb towards my room. “Sleeping.”
What the hell is bugging him so much?
I didn’t want to pry but I did want to know. “Is it Dee?”

His shoulders slumped - that was it. He’d probably heard from Dee, or from someone who knew her. The poor guy was still all wrapped up in the blond bombshell I’d only met a couple times myself, and that had been months ago. “What happened?” I asked.

“Nothing at all,” he said. “No one’s heard from her. No one’s seen her.”

That wasn’t a change, that had been the case for a long time now. “So…”

“She’s gone quiet on social media and everything,” he said, running a hand through his dark curly hair. “Her roommate just texted me wondering if I’d contacted her recently, she can’t find her, hasn’t gotten any rent money from her. I think she’s living on the streets, man.”

“Fuck.” That was some heavy info for seven in the morning. “What do you want to do? Anything I can help with?”

He sighed. “We’re overdue for a rest day.”

“True. Want to take the day off?”

“Yeah. Just… I don’t know.” I’d never seen the big guy look so helpless. But what could he do? I don’t think he even knew her last name, or if “Dee” was even the girl’s real name, or short for something, or completely made up. I still didn’t know how they’d gotten tangled up together - Surly wouldn’t tell me - but it was a godawful mess with no sign of getting better.

Shit. And I thought I’d had it tough with Riley. It made our issues look downright petty. “You’ll let me know if there’s anything I can do?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said, waving me away, “Go back to your girl. I’m heading out for a while but I’ll text you later.”

Heading out to look for her.
“Okay, man.” I clapped him on the shoulder and squeezed once, and smiled a grim little smile. Then he broke away and disappeared back inside his room.

I turned off the TV before returning to Riley, suddenly just grateful that she was warm and safe in my bed. I knelt over her and leaned down to kiss her neck, loving the way she slowly stirred awake with a soft little gasp. “Morning,” I grinned.

She rolled onto her back and pulled my head down to hers. I could feel her lips curve into a smile with her kiss. “Morning,” she said. Her eyes were still half-closed but she traced her hands down my chest to the hem of my boxers. “Get enough sleep?”

“Yeah, baby, why? Want to do something?”

She giggled. “Hmm. How would you answer that?” She dropped her voice in imitation of me, “Yeah, I wanna do you.”

“Funny,” I said. I wiped the smile off her face when I reached between us and brushed her between her legs, over her little blue panties. Her grin faded as her lips parted.

I took that as an invitation; I thrust my tongue inside her mouth while grinding against her, my morning hard-on straining for freedom. Her legs wrapped around my thighs as she angled herself for more contact.

I had to make her come again - there was nothing more important to me in that moment. I moved further down her body, kissing her neck, pausing to kiss her breasts and sink my teeth into the soft flesh, tugging her panties down at the same time. I tossed them aside and she parted her legs in an undeniable invitation.

“You’re so fucking sexy,” I growled as I traced my fingers through her wetness. I waited until she was looking at me, eyes wide, bottom lip trapped between her little white teeth as she trembled with anticipation. Only then did I move in and taste her, attack her soft and sensitive pink folds with lips and teeth and tongue.

She bucked beneath me and moaned, but I wrapped my hands around her waist and held her pinned to my mattress. I was on a mission. I found the pace that made her writhe and stuck to it, relentlessly attacking her most sensitive places while I slid two fingers deep inside her. She was always so wet for me, so hot, so perfect. I felt drugged as I consumed her, my focus narrowed to the pinpoint of just us. It wasn’t so different from a fight - nothing outside myself and my opponent existed. I was trapped in the moment.

Her legs trembled and tightened around me, signaling her climax. It was like a storm inside of her, all pulsing and clenching, her fingers tightening on my hair, then relaxing, then gripping again. She cried out, something that sounded like my name, then released a long breath in rhythmic bursts. I remained where I was, watching with pride - I’d done that to her. I’d made her feel that way, made her body react so strongly.

When her shivering began to subside I climbed back up the bed, hovering over her, my dick hard as a rock and aching with the need to be buried inside of her. Her eyelids fluttered as she looked up at me and smiled.

“Hope you’re ready for me, baby,” I said, teasing her with my fingertips as I positioned myself where I needed to be.

“I’m ready. Kiss me.”

I obliged. I slid my tongue between her lips as I slid myself home between her legs. “Fuck,” I whispered against her mouth, “Goddamn.” It felt so good I could have died happy right there. “So fucking good,” I growled, lowering my head next to her ear.

I took her slow. With no practice to run off to, no day job for her, we had nowhere to be. I savored the feel of her breath on my neck, relished in the sensation of being wrapped up in her arms and her legs and her warmth; I was drowning in her.

And I was lucky. Surly had reminded me of that. We were young and we were healthy and relatively carefree. I couldn’t remember what I’d been so upset about. Some stupid ex-boyfriend? Fuck it. This was where I belonged. This was where
we
belonged.

Maybe my brain was on some sort of sex-high but that was how I was feeling as I rocked us both over the edge, as I kissed her sweet lips and captured her cries of ecstasy before releasing my own.

She giggled when I finally withdrew and rolled aside, breathing heavily as if I’d just had a workout.
I suppose it kind of was.
“Think we woke your roommates?” she asked.

Jokes. She’s making jokes.
I shook my head. “Don’t worry about them.”

“What’s wrong?” she asked. She propped herself up on her arms and looked down at me, eyes creased with worry.

I touched her cheek. “Nothing, babe.” I kissed her until the worry faded away. My phone buzzed on the nightstand next to me, so once she was smiling again I let her roll aside and grabbed it.

My brother. Fuck.
That was the end of my good mood. It said simply, “downstairs.” Great, the bastard was here to ruin our morning.

“Who’s Tony?” I turned the phone off and glared at her. I hadn’t realized she was craning her neck to read the phone but there she was, eyes wide and innocent. She cringed at the displeasure on my face. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have read it.”

“Damn right,” I mumbled, rolling away and finally getting out of the bed. She pulled the sheets up to her chin as she sat up and watched me rummage through the drawers for clothes.

“It’s a bad habit. Please don’t be mad.”

Bad habit, indeed. I knew she and her ex had been all up in each other’s phone business. Hell, it was his text from her phone that had led to me finding them kissing in their doorway - a memory I did
not
need to dredge up. Not right then and not ever.

My anger melted when I looked at her, though, lips still swollen, hair in disarray, sitting there in my bed. I sighed. “Tony’s my brother.”

“Oh.” I knew that raised more questions but I didn’t want to talk about him.

“Sorry. He’s a fan of the drop-in. You can wait here, I’m just gonna go downstairs and tell him to fuck off.”

That raised her eyebrows. “You don’t want me to meet him?”

“Correct.” I yanked on yesterday’s shirt. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere with him. I wanted to curse him out a little and then get back into bed with Riley, and not emerge for the rest of the day if we could help it.

“Why not?”

I grunted with impatience. “It’s not you. He’s an asshole.”

“So what, I can be an asshole.” She smirked. “Let me come with you. Between the two of us we can out-asshole him for sure.”

Pre-coffee, her logic almost made sense.

Or maybe the thought of having her there with me was more appealing than it should have been. I was not the kind of guy to turn to anyone for support, least of all some chick. But she was more than “some chick” - our lovemaking that morning had made that pretty fucking obvious, whether I liked it or not.

“Fine.” I took off the old shirt and dug out a new one. “Get dressed. We’ll tell him off and go get breakfast.”

○●○●○●○●○

I wished we’d been more firm in our plan, but Tony had a way of being just enough of a charming piece of shit to change the words as they came out of my mouth. I meant to say “Fuck on off,” but instead I mumbled, “Fine, join us for pancakes, what-the-fuck-ever.”

Riley squinted at me as the words poured out - more for my damn lack of resolve than for the invitation itself. He hadn’t given her a good reason to dislike him just yet but there was still time. Hell, he’d joked with her as soon as I made the introductions. “Damn, girl, you’re way out of his league. He’s about three fights away from being downright ugly.”

She snorted. At least it wasn’t an outright laugh. If Tony managed to win her over even just a little I didn’t think I’d be able to stand it.

“So, what has my little brother told you about me?” he asked as we slipped into a booth at a nearby diner. I sat next to Riley, with Tony across from us.

“Not a thing,” she said brightly, opening a menu. I put a hand on her knee - she was shaking it up and down in her usual nervous fashion and it was working on my already irritated nerves. She bit her lip and I shot her a reassuring smile.

“Sorry, Tony, can’t say I spend much time talking about you,” I said.

“He hasn’t said much about you, either,” Tony said, ignoring my jab. “Surprising. If I had a girl like you, I’d be bragging to everyone.” She pulled a face, but I could tell but the slight tinge of pink on her cheeks that his flattery had an effect, however small. Few were immune. Hell, it was one way the two of us were alike, though I hated to admit it. We knew how to turn on the charm. He gestured at her and said to me, “Hey, is this the one you said was over? Or is this something new?”

My fists and jaw clenched. He really was trying to goad me into flipping the fuck out, and in front of Riley and everyone else in that diner. It was working. I was on the edge of violence already.

“Hey,” Riley cut in, putting her hand over mine. “Why can’t we be nice? We can talk about how much we all love bacon, how about that?”

Tony watched her speak with an eyebrow up, but at least the smirk was gone. “All right,” he said, turning to his menu. “Bacon it is.” She’d diffused him for the moment, thank god. My fists relaxed.

“So what do you do, Tony?” she asked once we’d placed our orders. Pancakes and bacon and eggs arrived one plate at a time. She picked at hers nervously while she waited for his answer.

“I’m a fighter like your boyfriend here,” he said, pointing with his fork. I cringed. I wasn’t her “boyfriend” and I didn’t need him planting that idea in her head.