Fire & Brimstone

  trembling. She’d never been with a man like that, needing him inside her so badly that she seriously thought that she would die without him. One minute she’ been standing next to him in the bakery and the next they’d been in his truck making out as she cupped him through his pants and nearly screamed in frustration when she realized exactly what he’d had waiting for her.

  She’d never been like that with anyone else, wild, desperate and reckless. She wasn’t a saint when it came to men and sex, but she’d never had sex with a man in his truck in broad daylight right outside a busy restaurant without a condom. Even though she still couldn’t believe that she’d lost control like that, she knew that she would do it again in a heartbeat if she got the chance.

  There was just something about the way that he touched her that set her body on fire. When he touched her, she couldn’t think about anything but him and how badly she needed him and right now was no exception. Her stomach was still angry with her for the popcorn, but she didn’t care. She wanted him to touch her, taste her and slide back inside her all while she ran her hands over him as he fucked her, but apparently he had other plans tonight.

  Plans that were most likely going to get him killed.

  Sighing heavily, he pressed one last kiss against her lips before he pulled back. “We shouldn’t be doing this when you’re not feeling good.”

  She opened her mouth to explain that him touching her would make her feel really good, but one look at the stubborn bastard’s face told her that she’d be wasting her time. As he grabbed the remote and raised the volume so that they wouldn’t miss a single growl and scream as zombies tore humans apart, she couldn’t help but wonder if he knew just how close she was to beating him to death with a pillow for leaving her this frustrated.

  Maybe he really was an asshole?

  Chapter 26

  Maybe she had a life insurance policy on him and she was trying to collect? he absently wondered as he watched that generous ass of hers sway back and forth…back and forth…as she wiped down another table.

  Or maybe she was trying to get back at him for all those times that he’d tried to fire her?

  Whatever it was, it was fucking killing him.

  It had been almost two weeks since he’d last touched her and he wasn’t sure that he was going to survive one more day without gripping that beautiful ass of hers as he slid inside her. For the past week he’d somehow found the willpower to keep his hands to himself, but that all ended today.

  Or at least, it should have.

  She was feeling better today, which meant that he could touch her without feeling like a complete asshole, but there was a problem. One that he would happily get out of if he could, but he knew that if he even tried to get out of going tonight that his mother would kill him since he’d skipped the last three family dinners.

  Four times a month his mother made a huge family dinner and unless you were dying or had a really good fucking reason, you were expected to be there. She usually checked in with everyone before she planned a family dinner so that she could pick a day and time that worked for everyone. Thanks to some of his employees quitting, he’d been forced to find and train their replacements he’d been able to get out of going, but not tonight.

  Tonight his mother expected him there and to start answering some questions courtesy of his fucking cousins and their big fucking mouths. Now everyone in his family wanted to know about Rebecca. They were probably expecting him to bring her tonight, but he wouldn’t do that to her until it was absolutely necessary and right now, it wasn’t necessary.

  “Are you aware that you’re drooling?” Melanie, his newly self-appointed sidekick, whispered conspiratorially as she sat down on the stool next to him.

  “Go away,” he said, forcing himself to look around the busy dinning area to make sure that everything was going smoothly when all he wanted to do was watch Rebecca as she moved, bent over and scrubbed her little heart out.

  Actually, what he really wanted to do was-

  “I can’t believe they did this to her,” Melanie said, looking seriously pissed off while she sat there, looking at Rebecca with something close to pity.

  He didn’t like that look, especially since it was directed at Rebecca.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, trying to go for casual, but he was an asshole so casual really didn’t work for him.

  Just like that, the pissed expression was wiped clean from her face and in its place was a mixture of pure shock and curiosity, which he also really didn’t appreciate.

  “She didn’t tell you?” she asked with a calculating expression on her face that was going to get her killed.

  “No,” he bit out with a glare that should have told her that he wasn’t in the mood for any bullshit today, but this was Melanie that he was dealing with here and she didn’t seem to have any sense of self-preservation when it came to pissing him off.

  “Really?”

  “Melanie.”

  “Fine!” she snapped with an over-the-top sigh, reminding him why she was Rebecca’s best friend. “Her parents are having a huge thirtieth anniversary party tonight and they didn’t invite Rebecca.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” he asked, glancing at Rebecca to find her smiling at Mr. Jenkins, one of their favorite lunchtime regulars.

  If she was upset, she wasn’t showing it, but then again…

  “Does she know?” he asked, immediately realizing it was a stupid question. Of course she knew. If his annoying sidekick that wouldn’t leave him alone knew about it, then she did as well since the two of them didn’t appear to keep secrets from each other.

  “Yeah, she knows,” Melanie sighed as she gestured to the bartender for a drink while he sat there, trying to make sense out of what she’d just told him.

  One thing became clear as he glanced back at Rebecca to find her shooting him a cute little wink, bringing her with him had just become necessary.

  *-*-*-*

  Maybe she shouldn’t be doing this, she thought, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she stood there, contemplating the pros and cons of breaking into Lucifer’s apartment and using his shower. Not that she was having a moral dilemma about breaking into his apartment, because she wasn’t.

  The reason that she hadn’t broken into his apartment, yet, was simply because she wasn’t sure if he’d left the night yet. Before she broke into his apartment and rightfully used that large, luxurious shower of his, she wanted to make sure that he wasn’t going to suddenly show up and start asking questions that she had absolutely no plans on answering.

  “You’ll pay for this, you bitch!” Melanie yelled from the safety of their apartment where she was currently tearing the place apart looking for her stash of sweets that Rebecca may have hidden in retaliation for betraying her.

  “Maybe you’ll learn to keep your big fat mouth shut, biatch!” she yelled back, still furious that Melanie had opened her big fat mouth and told Lucifer about her parents.

  “And maybe if you didn’t have trust issues then I wouldn’t have to tell your boyfriend so that he could be there when you break down and cry like a bitch, biatch!” the traitorous bitch yelled back.

  “I’m not going to cry!” she yelled back, because she wasn’t.

  She was over it now.

  She was.

  She’d spent the last few days claiming that her stomach still hurt so that everyone would leave her alone so that she could feel bad for herself while watching horror movies and binging on Hershey Kisses. It was something that she needed to do and now that it was out of her system, she was fine with it.

  Absolutely fine!

  “Bitch!” she snapped back a little late, deciding that she needed to add the insult to emphasize just how fine she was.

  “You’re the bitch!”

  “Says the bitch!” Rebecca yelled back with a glare.

  “I hate you!”

  “I hate you!” she said, just as their apartment door opened and Melanie
stuck her head out.

  “Hey, I was thinking about going out later and picking up some Chinese food from that place down the street that has a gluten free menu. Do you want me to pick you up anything?” Melanie asked with that warm smile of hers that made it nearly impossible to stay mad at her.

  “Yeah, that would be great. Thank you, sweetie,” she said, returning Melanie’s smile as she reached down and jimmied Lucifer’s door open.

  “You breaking in?” Melanie asked, nodding towards Lucifer’s apartment.

  “Yeah,” she said with a sigh as she opened the door. “Figured that I’d put that shower to good use while he was out.”

  Melanie nodded as though this made perfect sense. “I’ll put your food in the fridge then.”

  “Thanks,” she said as she walked into Lucifer’s apartment.

  “You’re welcome, sweetie,” Melanie said as Rebecca shut the door behind her and sighed with relief when she didn’t see the large brooding man that she’d been avoiding for the last couple of days.

  Not that he’d done anything wrong, because he actually hadn’t. He’d been sweet, kind and considerate even though it made her want to wring his damn neck. She missed being with him, touching him and losing herself in his arms, but she’d had too much on her mind the last couple of days and hadn’t wanted to chance doing something stupid like breaking down and venting all her crap to him.

  She wasn’t one of those women that cried and complained about absolutely everything to their boyfriends, hoping that he’d fix it for her or tell her that she had every right to be mad. She didn’t need that and she honestly liked Lucifer too much to chance turning him off with all that drama. He’d already accepted all her medical baggage and the fact that dating her came with limitations. She didn’t want to add this on top of everything else.

  She also didn’t want to dwell on this all night. So, she pushed it out of her mind and focused on what she came here to do, take a long, hot shower in her new home away from home, because of course she’d been sneaking in here all week and helping herself to his bathroom. She knew that if she’d asked to use his shower that he would have said yes, but she didn’t want to bother him at work. So, she’d taken it upon herself to break into his apartment every day for the past week, once or twice a day, and enjoy a long, luxurious shower in peace.

  That’s just what good girlfriends did…

  He really was so lucky to have her, she decided as she grabbed two large, neatly folded towels from his linen closet and headed towards that shower that had helped her get through the crap that her parents put her through. She opened the bathroom and didn’t waste any time in stripping out of her clothes and stepping into the shower.

  If she hadn’t been so focused on the shower and those triple jets, she probably would have noticed the large man leaning back against the wall with his large arms crossed over his chest, waiting for her. It definitely would have saved her from screaming like an idiot when she finally spotted him…and an unnecessary ass injury.

  Chapter 27

  “What the hell were you thinking sneaking around like that?” Rebecca demanded on a pained gasp as he carefully took a left turn onto Maple Street.

  “I wasn’t sneaking around,” he said, trying not to panic as he kept his hand on her back to stop her from rolling off the seat and slamming into the dashboard before dropping to the floor and scaring the shit out of him, again.

  If he had known that she’d bounce like that he never would have hit the brakes so damn hard. He really hoped that unfortunate incident hadn’t further damaged her beautiful ass, but the way that she’d suddenly gone pale and stopped talking had actually scared the shit out of him.

  “Are we there yet?” came the muffled question against his leg as she tightened her grip on his pants.

  “Almost,” he said absently as he risked a glance down to find her still lying on her stomach with her face pressed up against his leg as she held on for dear life. “How are you feeling?”

  There was a slight pause before she admitted, “My ass kind of hurts.”

  “Kind of?” he asked, trying to sound hopeful, because maybe she hadn’t broken her ass after all?

  He could hope at least, and he was really fucking hoping that he hadn’t broken her beautiful ass.

  He raised his hand to provide some comfort to the damaged area, but thought better of it since she’d screamed the last time that he’d done that. Not knowing what else to do, he placed his hand on her back and ground his jaw when she let out a pathetic little whimper.

  “Lucifer?”

  “Yes?”

  “I think I broke my ass,” she whispered softly, making him roll his eyes.

  Little smart ass, he thought, fighting back a smile as he carefully took another turn.

  “Do you think they’ll have to take an x-ray?” she asked with a little sigh as she shifted to get comfortable, but since she was stuck lying on her stomach like this in the front of his truck, it most likely didn’t help.

  “Probably,” he said, hoping that his brother was already at the office waiting for them.

  “It’s just your brother, right? No one else is going to be there?” she asked, sounding anxious as shifted again, accidentally kicking him in the process.

  “I told him to come alone,” his said as he pulled into the parking lot of his family’s medical practice and saw all the cars and trucks filling up the parking lot, realizing too late that he’d just been fucked over.

  He was going to fucking kill the little bastard, he thought as he reluctantly threw his truck in park and watched as his brothers and several of his cousins ascended on them.

  “What’s going on?” Rebecca asked as she tried to sit up, but of course she couldn’t move, which was the only reason why he wasn’t turning his truck around and getting the hell out of there.

  “I’m going to fucking kill my brother,” he said, deciding that yes, killing the little bastard would be worth going to prison for the rest of his life and becoming intimately acquainted with the showering practices of inmates.

  *-*-*-*

  “Do you want to tell me what happened?” the handsome doctor that was apparently Lucifer’s father asked.

  Doing her best to appear sweet and innocent, something she’d actually practiced in high school, she looked up, allowed her bottom lip just the slightest of trembles and said, “I forgot the safe word again.”

  “Oh, my fucking God! Stop saying that!” Lucifer shouted from the hallway where his mother, who actually turned out to be a very sweet woman, had banished him so that she could be examined in peace.

  Dr. Bradford’s lips twitched with amusement. “You like torturing my son, don’t you?”

  Sighing heavily, because there was no point in lying, she nodded. “I really do.”

  He chuckled as he pulled out his pen and made another note on her paperwork. “Well, the good news is that you didn’t break anything.”

  “Really?” she asked, instantly perking up at the news.

  “The bad news is that you bruised your tailbone,” he said with a look of pity that she didn’t quite understand.

  Bruised was better than fractured, right?

  “How exactly is that a bad thing?” she asked, wondering if she’d missed something.

  “You’ll see,” was all he said before he gave her a reassuring smile that actually frightened her a bit and left the examination room, leaving her to panic as she struggled to get dressed. When sharp pain shot through her ass when she tried to undo the thin cloth ties holding her examination gown closed she decided that it was time to call for help.

  “Lucifer?” she said, hoping that he was close by, because she really didn’t feel like trying to shuffle after him while clinging to her gown as she tried to make her way through throngs of Bradfords, who apparently hadn’t been able to pass up the chance to come mock him for breaking his girlfriend’s ass.

  She would fit in so well with this family, she thought with a heavy sigh as she ga
ve up on trying to hold up her gown. She let the gown slip down her arms as she held onto the examination table, trying not to fall on her ass. God, her ass hurt. Maybe she should try to climb back on the table and lay down on her side? After moving her leg to try just that, she decided to give up on that plan and just stand there and wait for Lucifer, who didn’t appear to be coming anytime soon.

  *-*-*-*

  He really fucking hated his family.