“Fuck, it,” I finally said, giving up my search. I turned to Bear and held out my hand. “Let me use yours.”
“First tell me who it is you thinking of killin’,” Bear insisted, placing a protective hand inside his cut over his gun.
“You really don’t hear that?”
Bear looked around and even briefly closed his eyes before opening them again. “I don’t have a fucking clue what you’re talking about.”
“Close your eyes again. Fucking LISTEN,” I snapped, growing frustrated. My mind racing.
The second Bear closed his eyes and removed his hand off his gun I reached inside his cut and before he could stop me I shot through the open window, blasting the little green bug into smithereens and in the process exploding the piece of faux marble covering the window sill and shattering the glass of the window when it fell from its locked position.
“Much better,” I said, tossing the gun back at Bear before he had a chance to grab it back from me.
“You don’t grab another man’s gun, asshole,” Bear growled, anger lacing his every word as I climbed back into bed. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“Getting rid of some of the goddamned noise around here. That’s what I was fucking doing.”
“Preppy, you’ve lost your goddamned mind is what you’ve done,” Bear barked over me. The door to the apartment slammed open and King burst into the room, a frantic look on his face.
“What the fuck was that?”
“Preppy sentenced a cricket outside the window to death by firing squad of one,” Bear remarked.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” King shouted, pulling me up and holding me in front of him, his face only inches from mine. An angry vein thrummed in his forehead as it had always done when he was pissed. I missed that vein.
“What the fuck is your problem?” I asked.
“Are fucking kidding me right now? My problem is that we have kids and women who fucking live here and you’re firing a gun outside the god damned window like it’s the wild west. Fuck, Prep. I know shit’s different around here now, but that shit you just pulled wouldn’t fucking fly before you went away either.”
“I’m so fucking sorry that I don’t live up to your new family man standards,” I said, grabbing his wrist and tossing it away from where he had gathered a handful of my shirt in his hand. I grabbed a duffel bag from under the bed and tossed a few pairs of shorts and shirts into it.
“You need help?” King asked, his anger turning into frustration. “Do we need to send you somewhere? Just tell me what you fucking need, Preppy!”
“I need the noise to stop. I need the light to stop burning my fucking eyes. I need my fucking cock to work instead of lying limp between my fucking legs.” I zipped the bag and tossed it over my shoulder. I looked back at King who was standing there with that look on his face that I was tired of seeing. “I need my friends to stop looking at me like I’m some dog who got hit by a fucking car.”
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Bear asked as I made my way to the door.
“Somewhere much fucking quieter.”
King’s arm shot out, blocking me from the door.
“Just let him go,” Bear said pulling on King’s arm. He reluctantly let it fall with a growl and I left, slamming the door and leaving my two best friends behind me.
Nobody followed me.
Which was good.
Because I had no fucking idea where I was going.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
KING
“Hey, you busy?” Pup asked, peeking her blonde head around the door.
“Just finishing up,” I said, snapping off my black gloves and tossing them into the trash bin. I rolled my stool to the center of the room and she didn’t need another invitation, she stepped into the room and between my legs so I could wrap my arms around her, but it wasn’t close enough.
Never was.
I grabbed her hips and pulled her close until her body was firmly against mine and my face against her chest.
“What’s going on?” I mumbled from between her tits. My last client just left and I was beat. It was the last session of six for one of the biggest and most intricate back pieces I’d ever done.
“Oh wow. It’s beautiful,” Pup exclaimed and when I looked up she had my phone in one hand and the other was covering her mouth as she looked down at the screen at the picture I’d just taken before I’d wrapped up his back and sent him on his way. “It’s your best one yet.”
“You say that about all of them,” I said, again pressing my face between her braless tits and wanting very badly to sleep there for the rest of the fucking night.
Pup laughed and stepped back but I wouldn’t let her get far so I grabbed her hand and pulled her back into me. “I need to talk to you about something serious,” she said.
“You pregnant again?” I asked, unable to hide the hope in my voice. Some may view my need to knock my woman up constantly as pathetic, but I saw her being pregnant with my baby as more than just carrying a kid. Her being pregnant with my baby was like the possession of her. A body and soul kind of thing. It made me rock fucking hard every time I thought of her belly growing and her tits swelling again.
“No!” she said, slapping me playfully on the shoulder. “We said we would take a break. We have three and I need a minute to just...to just breathe!”
“How long do you need to breathe baby?” I murmured, lightly running my teeth over sensitive spot of skin under her tit over her shirt. “A week?” I dug my fingers into her hips and moved my head lower to kiss the small strip of skin between her tank top and her shorts. “Two weeks?” I asked, licking a circle around her belly button. I looked up just as her pale cheeks turned bright pink. “Three? Because you know, baby, I’ll give you whatever you want.” I rubbed my thumbs over the tops of her thighs from the outside in, dipping them into the frayed opening of her shorts. Goosebumps rose on her warm flesh.
“Time,” she said sternly. Well, as sternly as she could with my thumbs circling so close to her pussy. “I just want a little time.”
“I’ll give you two months,” I bargained without waiting for her to reply. Instead, I watched as her eyes turn dark as I ran my nose over stomach and breathed in her arousal. There was no better scent on earth than my woman when she was turned on.
MY woman.
Something I could say a million fucking times and it never got old.
MINE.
“We...we can talk about that stuff. Baby stuff. La...later,” she stammered. “Right now I need to talk to you. It’s about Prep.”
“What about Prep?” I asked, realizing that Pup was serious about whatever it was she had to talk to me about I needed some space so I could actually hear her so I took my tools over to the sink where I started taking apart my equipment for cleaning and sanitation.