“I just want to be safe.” Sitting in the booth, she wrapped her arms around herself like she was cold. “Do you think we can be?”
“Absolutely.” It hadn’t sunk in for her yet, but no one was coming for us. It was all over.
“Where?”
I’d been thinking it over, talking about it with Liam, but I hadn’t discussed it with Sky yet. At first, it seemed like too much to assume that she’d want a future with me. As if once Griller was out of the picture, I would be, too. And then, when things heated up between us, we’d gone so fast into devising and executing our plan, we hadn’t stopped to talk about “what next.”
“I was thinking about Naugatuck.” I scratched my head, gauging her reaction.
“Where you got in the accident?” She seemed surprised.
“Yeah, you ever been?”
“No.” She said it like “of course not.” And it was true, Naugatuck was a rich people destination, like Martha’s Vineyard or the Hamptons. But I’d spent a couple summers there and one of my best friends was a local who said he had a lead on a place where we could stay. Plus, it couldn’t be more off the radar of a certain Southern California motorcycle club.
“It’s real pretty there. Right on the ocean. Kind of a small town feel. I think you’d like it.”
She nodded. “Sounds like a good place to lay low.”
“Not that we have to,” I added, agreeing but wanting to reassure her.
“Guess it’s as good a place as any,” she shrugged. Still not exactly the reaction I’d been hoping for, but it would have to do for now.
After another few hours of driving, we stopped for the night in Amarillo, Texas. She took a long, hot shower. I wanted to join her, but she still seemed a million miles away. Instead, I called Ace.
“Where you been?” he asked. I’d told him I was heading out of town, and of course he’d been the one to encourage me to do that on a permanent basis. But we’d gone about a week without contact and I rarely let that happen.
“I’m with Sky.” I decided to answer with what I could say, instead of trying to pussy-foot around what I couldn’t.
“No shit.” He whistled with amazement. “How ‘bout that.”
“She’s left her husband.”
“How about that,” he repeated. “I always knew the two of you made quite a pair. So, are you heading somewhere together?”
“I think we’re going to Naugatuck.” I told him about Liam, how he said he had a lead on a place.
“You sound happy, Jax.”
“I am, Ace.”
“Proud of you, son. You let me know when you get there.”
Sky went right to sleep when she got out of the shower, like she couldn’t keep her eyes open for another second. “Sorry,” she mumbled as she sank down on the pillow. “So tired.”
“That’s OK.” I rubbed her back, worried about her. She seemed like she was in a deep funk.
“Love you, Jax,” she mumbled, her voice heavy with fatigue. “You’re my hero.” And she was out, her ribs rising and falling with slow, deep breaths.
Hero. Huh. I’ve never had that name applied to me. In fact, I’d spent a good long time after the accident feeling the opposite. Ian had never blamed me for his injuries, but no one had gone so far as to call me a hero that night. Ace had always believed in me, seen a better path for me than just about anyone else around me. But even Ace, with all his grandfatherly love and faith, had never said I was a hero.
But Sky? She made me feel that way. Sure, she was passed out cold and probably only twenty percent coherent when she’d said it. But it was the way she looked at me, the way she trusted me. To her, I was a hero. I had to admit, she made me feel like one.
§
It was the next day that she finally started reviving, her true, effervescent self bubbling through. At lunch in Oklahoma City, she laughed and told me a story about one of the women she used to work with. During our afternoon driving shift, she apologized.
“Sorry I’ve been so out of it. I think I’ve been in shock. I can’t believe it all actually happened.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about.”
“Thanks, I don’t want you to think I’m not grateful for your help
“Of course not”
“Or not excited to be with you. It’s just a lot to process. To think Mike’s dead.” She shook her head, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’ve wanted to be free for so long. I start feeling these moments of happiness, but then I feel guilty. Like there’s blood on my hands.”
“There would have been blood on his hands if he’d gotten the chance,” I had to remind her. She did need to come to her own conclusions, but I also couldn’t sit quiet and listen to her beat herself up. “He was cruel to you, Sky. The thought that he ever laid a hand on you.” I clutched the steering wheel, rage surging through me.
“I know, Jax. I know.” She reached out and touched me, running her hand along my arm. “I know we had to do it. And we’re lucky it worked. I think it’s just going to take some time to get used to it, this reality where I’m free of him. And I’m with you.” She smiled at me, leaning her head against my shoulder.
“Is that what you want, Sky?” I made myself ask. We’d had an intense connection leading up to the show-down in the warehouse, but that had also been filled with adrenaline. She’d needed my help. I knew I wanted to be with her now more than ever, but I didn’t want to take it for granted that she felt the same way.
“More than anything.” She spoke quietly but clearly, and suddenly Springfield, Missouri couldn’t come fast enough. We’d agreed we’d stay there overnight. The faster we got across the country, the more distance we’d put between us and the pain of the past. The quicker Sky and I could move on to the good stuff.
Finally pulling off for a hotel, she made a confession. “All that waiting in that car with you was hell.”
“You mean when we were downtown waiting to see Griller?” She nodded. “Yeah, that was hard, being patient and not knowing if he’d ever show. But all that time we put in paid off in the end. It worked.”
“What I mean is, I hated sitting so close to you and not touching. I knew we had to stay focused, but you
were so distracting.”
I swallowed, turned to her and said, “Hold that thought.” I paid in cash, grabbed the room key card and got us checked in in record time. Finally holding her in my arms, kissing her the way I’d wanted to, finally free of all the anxiety and obstacles, we tumbled into the hotel room.
“Naked,” I panted pulling her T-shirt off her head, unbuttoning her jeans. “I want you naked.”
“You, too.” She worked on me as well, stripping me down. I sat back onto the bed, holding her to me as she straddled my knee. “I hated sitting so close to you and not being able to do this.”
She slipped down to her knees and took my cock into her mouth, her wet heat surrounding me all at once. I clutched the sheets, growling out a swear as she sucked me in smooth, gliding up and down.
She came off, licking her lips and looking up at me with a smile as she continued stroking me with her hand. “I wanted to lean down, unzip your jeans and take you in my mouth.” She dropped her head again, circling my crown with her tongue, moaning as she sucked me in.
“Sky,” I groaned, hand to the back of her head. Of course I’d wanted her to do that, too, been distracted and hard half the time we’d sat in that SUV waiting, but I’d told myself to focus. What if we missed our chance with Mike, or worse, blew our cover while she blew me?
Stroking, licking, she looked up at me with that devilish smile, sitting tall on her knees. “Do you know how much I used to fantasize about doing this? Going down on you? I used to touch myself and think about it all the time.” She moved closer, stroking my slick shaft and bringing it between her breasts. A drop of precum formed on the head. She cooed appreciatively when she saw it, smoothing it with her thumb along my shaft, then her breasts.
I watched, transfixed, as she nestled my cock in her cleavage, pushing her breasts together, caressing it between her mounds. I started thrusting, transfixed by how erotic it looked to see my dick nestled between her large breasts.
“That feels so good,” she purred, arching into me, shoving her tits together as I pushed between them.