Page 100 of Crush

“What do you need?” I said like rapid fire.

He said he’d pick me up and that I was to be outside my apartment in ten. I pocketed my phone, pulled on a jacket, and then grabbed my keys.

Forget butterflies,batswere causing chaos in my stomach; a whole cave of them. What if we were faced with something we couldn’t handle? I batted off the silly notion. Gabriel owned a gun and was a crack shot. He wouldn’t pause for thought if Leonie’s life was threatened and I had always been the muscle. A man who was good with his fists.

Sacking off the lift which appeared to be stopping at every floor on its way up, I took the stairs, two at a time, sweet Leonie’s face swimming into my thoughts.

Hang on sunshine. Help is on the way.

*****

The next hour was like a bad crime drama. You had to be there to believe it. Leonie had been snatched by Gerard Kinlan’s son Kai Kinlan. He’d been tipped off that Gabriel was involved in compiling some incriminating paperwork against his criminal father. The same man that Garrett Knight, Gabriel’s old man worked for. It was all bollocks, of course, Gabe was no snitch.

To cut a long story short, Kai’s tearaway stepsister had been the one responsible for digging for dirt on Gerard and had sent the documents to Gabriel. We didn’t know why she chose Gabe, maybe in the hope that he’d do something with them; him now working for a well-respected law firm that wentafterhardened criminals. They had come in the form of the envelope I had signed for and luckily, Gabe and I were able to deliver the documents to Kai Kinlan to trade them for Leonie. It all went to plan until Kai’s stepsister appeared on the scene. It turned out Kai’s father was fucked anyway as theclever little minx had mailed another set of the papers she’d sent to Gabe to the cops.

The whole thing was a shit show. Leonie thankfully hadn’t been injured, just shaken up. Kai was a mean motherfucker but he hadn’t come across as the type of man who would harm a woman. I’d wisely remained silent during most of the exchange. I knew Gabriel had been at school with the guy and the stories about his behaviour were colourful, if that was the right way to describe it. Something about Kai having bitten the ear off one of his peers. Nice.

As I said, all was going well until the stepsister aka said dirt digger shot Kai and then fucked off. The wound appeared to be superficial and so she hadn’t killed him. At least, he was still alive and barking out orders like a cocky motherfucker when he’d allowed us to leave. I remember his words of warning that we were never there and saw nothing. Yes, I liked danger but I wasn’t stupid and upsetting the mafia had never been on my ‘to-do’ list. Not even close.

I’d seen some fucked up stuff in my time but that day's shenanigans had been on another level. All I’d been able to think about was how I would feel if that had been Amber tied to the chair. My fists flexed as I thought about beating the crap out of Alexander Harker. Of course, his wrongdoings were in the past but, sometimes the past came back to haunt you. Shit happens.

I drove Gabriel’s car back to mine with him and Leonie in the back. Mainly to allow Gabriel to comfort his girl. She’d been held at gunpoint at the end of the day although she handled it well.

I kept watching them in the rearview mirror. Talk about loved up, they wereallover each other.

It had taken my friend a while to get there but I knew he wasn’t stupid enough to not realise he was onto a good thing with Leonie. She was sweet, kind and loving and wore her heart on her sleeve.

I made sure I was my usual flirty self to piss Gabriel off and he suggested I find myself a girlfriend. And of course, I had, she just didn’t know it yet. Not being ready to share the news with my friends at that point, I said something about Natalie satisfying my needs or some shit like that and then moved the hell on.

And now I too had fallen, and for a woman whom I thought I couldn’tstandto start with.

I knew that my angst towards her had mainly been because she’d appeared so unforgivably indifferent to me and gave as good as she got. I’dneverbeen treated with disdain by a female and although annoying in the beginning it became refreshing. Forcing me to partake in the chase; something I had never needed to do as soon as I turned fourteen. I thrived on challenges and Amber-Leigh Swift had been one of my life'sbiggestchallenges. The fact that her passionate nature burned as fierce as my own was also a bonus. And she had kinks too, bad girl kinks and I couldn’t wait to introduce her to all the ways I liked to punish a woman with pleasure. The thought of tying her up with my belt had me hard within seconds.

I was thoroughly looking forward to finding out just how responsive she’d be to my darker side. So far, we hadn’t yet scratched the surface, no pun intended. Knowing how passionate, tough, and forthright Amber was as a woman, I imagined she’d take it all andbegfor more. I had never been with a woman who was as highly sexed and who wasn’t afraid to let go sexually as Amber.

Even though she was a painfully beautiful woman, I was also in love with her mind; it truly was a case of heart and soul. I wantedallof her, the good, the bad and the ugly. In just a few weeks I had come to see through all her bullshit barriers to find the real woman beneath. And God she was worth it.

A knot formed in my stomach. I just hoped she felt the same way. If not, I may have to go all caveman on her arse and drag her to my lair. If she didn’t loveme, as my girlfriend, maybe she would come to love me in time. Either way, I wouldn’t rush her. We would take it one day at a time.

I had never thought of myself in relationship terms but that was probably because I had never been in one. If Amber said yes, she would be the first and I would treat her like my queen.

Once I arrived home, I took the lift to my apartment to change my clothes and more importantly my boots, having stood in dog shit during our not-so-heroic rescue.

It was now dark outside and Amber would have been home for hours. I hoped she wasn’t pissed at me. I checked my phone to see if she’d messaged me and my spirits dipped as I saw there was nothing.

Sod it. I’d make an entrance and woo the shit out of her. Get ready baby, I’m coming for you.

Eighteen

Amber

I was sitting on my bed wondering where the hell Max was. Had he stood me up after what he had said on the phone?

I reminded myself he’d been drunk. Maybe he’d forgotten that he was due to come over? I hated that I felt so needy.

Checking my reflection in the mirror, I straighten the strap on my top. I was wearing cute pink shortie PJs. There wasn’t much of the bottoms, you could see my arse cheeks without even bending over. The camisole section was also fairly brief.

I was looking forward to feeling Max’s hands on me and maybe this time, I’d take him in my mouth. I had been told by a past partner that I gave great head.

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