Rush did not do the same.
“Man, get your head outta your ass or you’re not only gonna lose your daughter, you’re gonna lose it all.”
Paul was searing a look at Rush, but Rush was grabbing my hand and pulling me to the door.
“I’m not sure you’re welcome back,” Paul spat at Rush.
“I’m pretty sure, you keep acting like a moron, I don’t care,” Rush muttered, opened the door and pulled me out, turning back and saying, “Goodbye.”
He reached in, shut the door and moved me down their walk.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I whispered, holding tight to his hand.
“Good that happened. Amy needed to lay it out,” Rush did not whisper back.
“You didn’t have to witness it.”
He stopped me at the passenger door to his truck and looked down at me. “Would you still be in there, playing referee to those two, if I was out in my truck?”
I slid my eyes away.
“Right,” he muttered, yanking open my door. “So it’s good I went in. Now we can go home, fuck, I can crash, we can find out where the fuck your brother and his man are, get them home to you, and I can go back out and shake down more people who have no idea where Chew is. Another perfect day.”
Oh man.
He was tired, done with this mess, probably hungry, had to deal with that ugly with Paul and Amy, and, well . . . tired.
I did not delay climbing into the truck.
Rush closed me in, rounded the hood, then angled in the other side.
After he started it up and pulled out into the road, I asked, “Do you want my cheesy biscuit breakfast sandwiches?”
“It’ll take too long. We’ll grab something from a drive thru, eat it on the way home, I’ll finish breakfast eating you out, then I’m gonna sleep.”
“That’s a plan,” I said, though I hated fast food (all but Arby’s, their beef and cheddars and curly fries were crack). The rest of it, I was totally down with, and one part of it, I was seriously down with. I dug my phone out of my pocket and told him, “I’ll call D.”
“Good idea,” he muttered.
Diesel didn’t answer so I left a message.
Rush was taking our order from a drive thru window at Taco Bell when my phone binged with a text.
Doing some shit with Sixx. It’s gonna take a while. Covered?
“D says he’s doing something with Sixx and it’s gonna take a while,” I told Rush as he handed me the bag.
“They’re not back when I wake up, I’ll drop you at Essence’s,” Rush replied, pulling out of the fast food lane.
And there it was again.
Plans change, Rush just found a new flow.
Covered, I texted D. Then followed up with, I might be at Essence’s if you’re gone long. I’ll text.
Right, sis. Later.
I dug in the bag to get out Rush’s breakfast burrito.
“Thanks for taking me,” I said.
“Not a problem,” he replied.
“Thanks for being awesome.”
His lips quirked, he glanced at me, took his burrito and looked back at the road.
“Not a problem.”
I pulled out my own burrito, set the hash browns and cinnamon balls where Rush could get at them, then crunched up the bag and threw it to the floor.
I unwrapped enough to take a bite, chewed, swallowed and announced, “You’re right.”
Rush did not swallow his bite but asked with a full mouth, “About what?”
“Diane gave me one last thing after she died.”
He knew where I was leading and that was why I got a gentle, “Babe.”
“I wouldn’t want it to happen this way. But it did. So that’s what I’ve got. And I’m good to take it.”
He switched burrito hands to reach out and give my thigh a squeeze.
He nabbed a hash brown on the way back to the steering wheel.
“I’m glad Amy did that. I’m not so worried anymore,” I shared.
“Yeah,” he replied.
“They’re really not that awful,” I told him.
“Amy’s not,” he replied firmly.
Hmm . . .
It would seem Rush wasn’t as easygoing with men who treated the women in their life like dirt, even with extenuating circumstances.
I understood Paul’s extenuating circumstances (to a point).
I still liked that.
We ate.
We made it back to his house.
We fucked.
And Rush passed out.
But I lay naked in his arms, watching Rush sleeping, marveling that he still looked badass doing it, thinking about our morning and about what D and Mad were doing with Sixx and about going to Phoenix.
I’d had his dad’s pancakes (and they were amazing).
Rush really needed to try my cheesy biscuit breakfast sandwiches.
And he might not know it because he’d never had it, but he really needed someone around to look after him.
I wanted to be that someone.
Bad.
The question was, was it more important I look after him by going to Phoenix?
After his losing it when his mom was such a bitch, and that day, him dragging me around, putting a good face on it even though he was dragging, I was uncertain.
What I knew was, we could talk about it more, he’d be open to my thoughts and concerns, and we’d come to a decision.
Together.
And knowing that would be how it went down was awesome.
Valenzuela
One twenty-eight, Sunday afternoon . . .
His head snapped back, he heard a low but sharp cry of pain as his teeth dragged flesh, and he found it an odd but alluring sensation that he was not able to move his hips when he spent himself magnificently into the condom.
“Finish him,” the gruff voice came from behind him.
The order was for him.
And hearing it, his orgasm ended almost harder than it began.
His mouth was again forced full, the plastic not to his liking, but he had his limits.
As did they.
This time, the rules would be followed.
However, perhaps next time he’d convince them to try something different.
Even if he was done, it was not unpleasant to listen and participate as things concluded fully.
He found it also wasn’t unpleasant to have his hair seized and his thigh abused, the harsh noises of a hand landing on flesh bringing pain mingling enjoyably with the sound of flesh pounding into flesh when things culminated.
He turned his head, freeing his mouth, and declared, “Now leave.”
He allowed himself to enjoy the release, and when the bed shook with their exit, he turned, dropped to a hip, then to his ass, and slunk up to lie naked in his own bed with his back against the headboard.
He approved of what he saw.
Big. Built. Hung.
The future was not female.
His lips curved.
After they both visited his bathroom, they came back and dressed lazily, knowing his eyes were on them, but even so, they didn’t waste time.
He should have thought of men.
However, it would never have occurred to him. The very idea was repugnant.
Until, of course, what he’d experienced in the red room.
But now, after some thought, he’d come to the understanding that men would be so much less trouble.
The tall one with the larger cock who’d taken his ass strolled to the chest under where his TV was mounted and swiped up the envelope that he had left for them there.
Well-tailored trousers of exceptional material, superbly-tailored dress shirt, dark blond hair groomed perfectly.
Just as he’d ordered.
Yes, he should have thought of men earlier.
Men understood authority, the importance of money and what it bought, and how to take orders, even if taking them was being ordered to give them.
They would simply provide a necessary service and not be a problem.
“My wallet. Trousers,” he demanded.
The other one snatched up Benito’s pants from his valet.
He was also quite tall, and had a superlative physique, but was shorter, leaner, and less endowed, though, he had a great deal of grace when he moved and a deep voice Benito found he appreciated, especially during the act.
The man dug out his wallet, draped the trousers as he’d found them and brought the wallet to Benito dressed in his own tailor-made slacks and shirt.
Benito approved of the man draping his trousers. Those trousers cost seven hundred dollars.
Yes, men were much less trouble in a number of ways.
Benito took it from him, slid out two hundred-dollar bills, and tossed them to the bed before placing his wallet on the nightstand.
“Gratuity,” he stated magnanimously.
They looked at each other, then the tall one moved forward and grabbed the bills.
Next time, he’d have the short one fuck the tall one while he watched before he let the tall one have him.
Though when that happened, he would wish to be tied down.
“Again. Monday evening. Eight o’clock. Allocate two hours,” he ordered.
“You got it,” the gruff voice of the tall one muttered.
His voice was appealing too.
They left the room, the shorter one closing the door behind them.
They’d given him their names, he just hadn’t bothered to take note of them.
He’d do that next time.
On that thought, Benito sighed.