Page 55 of Devil's Due

I laugh as she asks me outright and taken aback as to how to reply. I settle for, “I wouldn’t win a beauty pageant if that’s what you’re asking, but I do alright. No one’s ever complained.”

“Can I kiss you?”

I still.

“Just a kiss. Beef?”

A kiss. But if our mouths meet, the signals from my cock tell me that’s not all I’d like to do. Would I be able to stop there? Would she?

What if she wants to take things further? I promised myself I wouldn’t leap into another relationship. Go with a sweet butt with no expectations? Sure. But Stevie? We’re living together, for fuck’s sake. Neither of us able to walk away.

It would be a very bad idea.Wouldn’t it?

I hadn’t realised I’d murmured the last thought aloud, but I must have.

“Why bad, Beef? As you’ve said, you’re a man, I’m a woman. I’ve got needs too. We’re friends, aren’t we? How about friends with benefits?” She bites her lip, and inhales deeply, the action causing her breasts to thrust pushing up against that tee, stretching the Satan’s Devils logo. “I’m not asking for a future, I don’t have one. Not here, not with you. But to be in your arms, just once?”

I’m silent.Christ, she’s offering herself to me on a platter. No strings.

I’m quiet for so long, she starts to move. “I can understand you’re worried after what you went through with Sally. You’ve only just got yourself out of that mess. Beef, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have suggested it, I’ll respect your boundaries and won’t ask again. This wouldn’t be a good idea.”

Now she’s said it, perversely I want to change her mind back again. As she goes to get up, my arms move around her and tighten. “Stevie…”

There’s the sound of engines approaching the cabin. I push her off my lap urgently and stand. My hand goes to my gun.

“It’s alright, it’s your bike,” she tells me in her sweet soft voice, “and the truck your friends were driving.”

With my hand on the butt of my gun, I walk to the window, standing at the side and peering out. She’s not wrong.

Saved? Well, maybe. Pushing thoughts about what they interrupted out of my head, I focus on the scene in front of me.

I’m not too happy to see the prospect swinging his leg over my ride, hoping he rode carefully up the rutted drive else he won’t be getting his patch. Seeing there are no immediately apparent new dents in the fairing, I check to see who else has come visiting. It’s only Wills. Christ, how could I have forgotten it’s already Saturday? Days seem to have flown past, Stevie’s company is that good.

My cock, realising it won’t see any action, has deflated at the sound and sight of the prospects. Half of me thinks I had a lucky escape, being pulled back from the brink of making a mistake I’ll only regret, while the other half is cursing them for their timing. Mind you, it could have been worse. I could have been balls deep in her when they’d turned up.

“Hope you rode fuckin’ carefully,” I snarl, as Dan is first through the door.

“Course I did.” He chucks me my keys, I catch them one handed. “She’s a beaut, man.”

“Still got that rattle,” Stevie sings out behind me.

Dan’s eyes narrow. “Ain’t got no rattle.”

I sigh. I can’t hear it either, but I might get Pyro to take a look at some point. Right now, I’m curious as to why he’s brought it. Turns out I don’t even have to ask.

“Prez wants you back at the compound. He’s called church for six.”

The reference to the hour makes me glance at the old-fashioned clock over the mantelpiece, it might have ticked its way through a fair number of years but seems to keep good time. The big hand’s already close to five. I’ll have to get moving if I want to get there on time.

“We’re going to stay here while you’re gone. If that’s alright with you, Stevie?” Dan continues.

Stevie dips and raises her head. I walk over to her, shoving down the strange impulse to lean over and kiss her. “I won’t be long. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Take your time. I’ll be fine. I really don’t need a babysitter.”

She probably doesn’t, but I’m not leaving her on her own. Dan raises his chin and taps the gun in his belt. A signal he’s prepared for anything. Wills, just entering, carrying some bags, jerks his head in a similar confirmation.

I close the door behind me on the way out, pausing before getting on my bike, shaking my head as I think about what they had interrupted.All for the best.

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