Mama Dae squeezes me tighter. “If you ever do that again, Jolie, then I swear on my life… that room you were just in? That will be the last room you ever take a breath in.”
Mama Dae breaks the hug and walks back to her pot of sauce.
I turn and walk away.
Every part of my body is shivering with fear.
And yet there’s a deep anger raging inside me.
Maybe I would have been better off getting caught by the real police.
I hear the sound of Mac’s voice before I get to the top of the stairs.
“Where is she? Is she okay? What the fuck happened?”
Mac’s yelling as he runs through the house.
Mama Dae yells for Mac.
He’s at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at me.
All that fear and anger I feel is colliding inside me.
Mac climbs the stairs.
I can’t tell what he's thinking or feeling.
Or what he’s going to do.
When he gets to the top of the stairs, he stops.
If I wanted to push him, he’d go down the stairs and get hurt.
Part of me is really thinking about it. About hurting Mac.
Hurting the guy I’m in love with.
What I don’t love is his life. I want to take his life away… not his heart… but his life… this life…
“Jolie… what were you-”
I swing my right hand and slap Mac across the face.
In a way, I’ve wanted to do that from the day I met him.
I cup my hands to my face and jump back.
My eyes fill with tears.
I think I’m going a little bit insane.
Mac flexes his jaw.
He looks at the floor.
There’s a few seconds between us of dead silence.
Then he slowly lifts his gaze.
Our eyes lock together.
I realize this is our forever battle.
Me secretly wanting to get him out of his life.
Him wanting to pull me closer to him inside his life.
Mac moves toward me again.
His hands grab my waist and he pulls me close to him.
He kisses me.
A quick kiss, but enough that I end up kissing the air between us because I want more.
So he kisses me again.
I grab at his face this time, keeping him near me, kissing me.
I move to my toes.
Our tongues touch.
Lightning pops through my entire body.
A tingling feeling attacks me head to toe.
His hands slide around to my lower back and down to my ass.
He cups and lifts me.
I wrap my legs around him.
That’s a part of me that has no idea what I’m doing… but in reality, I know exactly what the fuck I’m doing.
I’m chasing my own pain and fear away.
Just like the crew does with booze and violence.
Just like the people do that buy stuff from Mac.
It’s the same thing, just a different way.
And I really don’t care.
Mac kisses me harder as he walks us to the bedroom.
He slams the door shut behind us and takes me right to the bed.
When I hit the soft covers, his hands lift my shirt.
I quickly put my hands over my head and arch my back, biting my lip, giving myself to him.
His lips touch just above my belly button.
His bad boy tongue flickers against my skin and he kisses up and up and up…
He takes my shirt off and leaves it on the bed.
His mouth moves over my bra and he growls.
As fast as he took my shirt off is as fast as he unclasps my bra.
When his hands move over my chest, I groan.
His mouth touches my stomach again.
His hands squeeze my chest.
Not too hard, but hard enough to remind me just how strong he is.
His fingertips flirt with my nipples, one by one, and then his hands move down to the button on my jeans.
I lower my back to the bed and look down at Mac.
The devil staring up at me.
Near what used to be my innocence.
The look in his eyes…
I lick my lips as his hands pull at my jeans and panties at the same time.
I lift my lower half off the bed and all my clothes are gone.
Tossed between the bed and the floor.
Mac kisses me at my inner thigh making me suck in a breath and I hold it.
He teases me down there with his lips and tongue, taking a break to take his shirt off.
He then kisses up my body, making a straight line while he takes his jeans off.
His hands slide around my body and he pulls me against his hard and warm skin.
The muscle… ohmygod…
He’s so cut and toned, it’s almost unfair.
Mac moves me to the top of the bed.
He moves the top cover down so he can pull it over us.
Now I’m smothered by Mac.
All I can breath and taste is him.
His skin.
His breath.
Our kisses.
The heat between our bodies.
He lowers himself down to me… in me…
I bite my lip again and shut my eyes.
I’m living in hell, but at least I can still feel heaven.
9
MAC
She faces the wall.
My fingertips slide down her arm. Then I move my fingertips to her hip. That’s my second favorite curve on her body. You can guess the first one.
I slide my fingertips down her leg until she wiggles.
So I know exactly where she’s ticklish now.
Her hair is sprawled out on the pillow.
I purposely dip my nose down to her hair and take a breath.
Yeah, I’m smelling her hair.
Smelling her fucking hair.
I’m so far in outer space with Jolie, I’m in a different galaxy.
I move my hand from her body because I know I have about thirty seconds before I get hard again. And if that happens, we’re never going to talk.
And, again, here I am… fucking Jolie… and I would rather talk than fuck?
I press my lips to her shoulder and kiss her.
I move from the bed and find my jeans.
Then I find a cigarette.
I light it and open the window a little.
My eyes never leave Jolie though.
She slowly rolls to her back and looks at me.
The sheets are just above her chest.
Cleavage is a beautiful thing… but sheet cleavage is even better.
Jolie bites her lips and stares at me.
“What happened today, sweetie?”
She swallows hard and shuts her eyes.
A few seconds later, a tear moves from her eye down her cheek.
I move back to the bed and lean down and wipe the tear away.
“Talk to me, sweetie,” I whisper. “I did not expect that call…”
“Call?” Jolie asks.
“Yeah. Declan called me. Said you were out walking around and got caught.”
She shut her eyes again and shakes her head. “I’m so stupid, Mac.”
“You’re not stupid, Jolie. What’s done is done.”
She looks at me. “It just… it just got to me. And I thought I could do it. So I walked around the block. I was only going to do it once. But I didn’t stop at one time. And then I smelled something. So I went down to that corner place.”
“You went inside?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Jolie says. “I was fine too. Nobody even looked at me. I grabbed a sandwich and took it to the counter. Then a man touched me and…”