Golden Trail

  The instant he was done talking, Rocky spoke. “You love me?”

  Layne’s head moved to the side. “What?”

  “You said you love me,” she told him.

  Layne stared at her and replied, “Well… yeah.”

  “You love me,” she whispered, her eyes still hooded but they were intense and Layne felt his chest freeze again.

  “Baby, what do you think we’re doin’ here?” he whispered back.

  She shook her head.

  “You ever fall out of love with me?” he asked softly.

  “No,” she whispered and it sounded like she struggled to get that one word out but Layne didn’t care, that one word meant everything to him.

  “That feeling is definitely mutual, honey.”

  She held his gaze one beat, two, three then she sucked in breath, her eyes filled with tears and she looked down and to the side.

  Layne moved around the bar, walked to her and pulled her into his arms. Rocky didn’t resist and slid her arms around his waist and held on, twisting her neck and pressing her cheek in his chest.

  He dipped his chin and put his lips to her hair. “This,” he said there, “this right now answered more than just your prayers, Rocky.”

  He heard her breath hitch as her body jolted with a fresh wave of tears and she held on tighter with her arms and pressed her body deep into his.

  He lifted a hand and pulled her ponytail holder out of her hair then ran his fingers through its length and he kept doing it as he listened to her cry.

  When her tears quieted, he whispered, “Ma’s making beef tenderloin tonight.”

  Her head jerked back and his lifted up as she looked at him with wet eyes that apparently were ringed with lashes coated with waterproof mascara. They were spiky with wet but her cheeks weren’t streaming with black.

  “Beef tenderloin?” she asked quietly, knowing exactly what that meant. Layne liked Vera’s beef tenderloin but Rocky loved it. She knew Vera wouldn’t make it if things weren’t good.

  “We had a chat,” Layne answered, she melted even deeper into him, dropped her chin and rested her forehead against his chest.

  “I like Vera’s tenderloin,” she whispered there.

  “I’m bringin’ home cones and ice cream.”

  Rocky’s head jerked back again, she looked startled a second then she let out a little giggle.

  “You’re impossible.” She was still whispering and he grinned.

  “Promise me you’re done with this shit, I’ll take watchin’ you eat a cone and then, later, watchin’ you wrap your hand around my cock and lickin’ it as payback for savin’ your ass instead of tannin’ it.” The softness went out of her face and she started to pull back but his hand went out of her hair and both his arms got tight around her. “Promise me, Rocky.”

  She tried to go into stare down but he knew she didn’t have it in her when she muttered, “Oh, all right.”

  “Is that a promise?” Layne pushed.

  “Yes,” she snapped.

  “All of it?”

  Her head tipped to the side. “What?”

  “No more stupid shit.”

  She pulled her arms from around him and put her hands on his chest but she replied, “No more stupid shit.”

  “And you eat dessert tonight,” he pressed.

  “Fine,” she snapped.

  “Then you eat me later.”

  “Fine!” she repeated, still snapping and still not meaning it and he smiled.

  “Don’t pretend you don’t like it as much as me, sweetcheeks.”

  “Um, I think you like it more than me, Layne.”

  She wasn’t wrong about that.

  He didn’t confirm, he ordered, “Now kiss me good-bye, I gotta get back to the office and run those plates and you need to get your ass to my house so Ma can get a head start on makin’ amends.”

  “You missed one more thing you need to do and that’s quit bossing me around.”

  He kept smiling. “Baby, what in all that isn’t good for you?”

  “The part where you boss me around, that’s the part not good for me.”

  Layne still kept smiling. “Quit bitchin’ and kiss me.”

  “Layne –”

  “Sweetcheeks, kiss me.”

  “If you’re so busy, maybe you should –”

  Layne shut her up by kissing her.

  Rocky was nursing a snit but still… she kissed him back.

  * * * * *

  Layne’s shoulders were to the headboard, his legs were spread, knees bent to the ceiling, his hands were in Rocky’s hair and his eyes were glued to her mouth working his cock.

  Damn, but he liked her mouth.

  But he didn’t want to come in her mouth, he wanted to come in her pussy.

  “Baby, get up here,” he growled and her eyes went to him but her mouth stayed where it was, her fingers wrapped tight around him and he watched her swirl the tip with her tongue.

  Fuck. Beautiful. Everything about it. Her hand, her tongue, her hair framing her face and all over his lap and her eyes telling him exactly how turned on she was.

  “Get up here,” he repeated and she bent to him, taking him deep one last time and sucking hard as she slid back up.

  Jesus. Fucking beautiful.

  Layne closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.

  Rocky’s mouth released his cock, he opened his eyes and watched as she crawled up his body to straddling him and pressed her tits to his chest, her face to his neck and he felt her tongue there.

  “Climb on, baby,” he grunted, needing to be inside her and she didn’t hesitate.

  She reached between them, wrapped him again with her fist and guided him inside, sitting up and filling herself, her head dropping back, her back arching, her nails dragging his chest and she moaned.

  Heaven.

  One of his hands went to her hip, the other one cupped her breast as he ordered in a thick voice, “Ride me.”

  She needed no coaxing, she moved, not slow – fast, hard. She was primed, so fucking hot, so wet, taking him deep as he rolled her nipple between his fingers and watched his woman drive herself down on his cock over and over.

  When he was close and she was closer, he sat up, both his arms going around her and he demanded, “Mouth on mine, baby.”

  She tipped her head down and did as she was told, moving on him and breathing into his mouth, “Layne, baby, you feel so good.”

  “Faster, Rocky,” he urged and she did as he asked, the noises coming from her throat telling him where she was at.

  One of his arms slid up her back and his fingers tangled in her hair, fisting, he held her mouth to his as his other arm moved and then he smacked her, hard, on the ass.

  Her body jerked and her head jolted against his hold but he kept it stationary.

  “You gonna be my good girl?” he whispered.

  “Layne,” she breathed and he liked that, fuck, he liked that, it went straight to his cock.

  He smacked her ass again, her body jerked again and then she started riding him harder. She liked this, his Rocky.

  “You gonna be my good girl?” he repeated and smacked her ass again.

  Rocky moaned into his mouth, her hand slid to his neck, fingers digging in, her other arm around his back and she started fucking him hot and hard and really fucking fast.

  He smacked her ass again. “Rocky –”

  “Yes,” she breathed into his mouth. “Yes, Layne, I’ll be your good girl.”

  Then she slammed down on his cock, ground into him and her head shot back so fiercely it took his hand with it and she moaned deep as her pussy convulsed around him.

  He whipped her to her back and drove into her, his mouth on hers, taking her moans and whimpers while she absorbed his grunts, riding her until his world exploded and he poured himself into Rocky.

  After he came down, he stayed rooted inside her and ran his nose, his lips and his tongue along her neck, ear and jaw and she held him safe, wrapped t
ight in all four of her limbs.

  When he had his face in her neck, she turned her head and in his ear, whispered, “Love you, Layne.”

  Layne stayed where he was, still and unmoving as he let the golden trail of her words glide through him then he lifted his head and looked at Raquel, her hair spread out on his bed, her face gentle, her pussy still hot and wet, her body soft under his and he whispered back, “Love you too, baby.”

  He dipped his head and kissed her, not hard, but long, his tongue sliding in her mouth, tasting her, so sweet, and she gave, even sweeter until he broke off the kiss, sliding his nose alongside hers.

  “I gotta go clean up,” she whispered.

  “I’ll be here,” he replied, pulled out and rolled off her.

  He watched her move gracefully from the bed, find his tee and she tugged it on as she moved to the bathroom.

  Layne got under the covers and rested against the headboard, listening to Rocky in his bathroom and he was thinking they could move the entirety of her living room furniture in his room when she walked out and wandered to his bed, her strut fluid and lazy and he liked it more knowing the laziness came from the orgasm he just gave her.

  She pulled back the covers and climbed in, scooting over until she settled with her cheek to his chest, her arm around him, she tangled a leg with his. He pushed his arm under her, pulled up her tee and cupped her bared ass with his hand.

  That was new too. If he fucked her, she slept without underwear. She didn’t used to do that.

  He liked it.

  He moved and turned out the lamp on the nightstand, plunging the room into blackness but she didn’t make a noise.

  He settled back and ran his hand over the cheek of her ass. “Did I hit you too hard?” he murmured.

  She shook her head slightly against his chest, her arm getting tight a second and she mumbled, “Unh-unh.”

  He grinned in the dark. “You liked it.”

  It was a statement.

  She didn’t respond except to curl deeper into him which was her response. She liked it.

  “I dream of you,” he told her and that caused a response. Her head came up and she looked at him through the dark.

  “What?” she asked.

  “After you came to visit me in the hospital, I started dreaming of you. Every night. Even when I was in the hospital, I dreamed of you. I still do.”

  “Really?” she whispered.

  “Yep,” he replied.

  “Wow,” she breathed and his hand moved to find her face, cupping her jaw he pulled her up as his neck bent. Then he touched his lips to hers.

  After, he said softly, “Yeah, wow. More than wow, sweetcheeks, in my dreams, we’re almost always fucking.”

  Her head moved back an inch and her hand slid up his chest to curl her fingers where his shoulder met his neck.

  “Really?” she repeated.

  “Oh yeah,” he whispered.

  “Is it good?” she asked.

  “Yeah, it’s good. As good as what we just did, not by a long shot but it’s good. I haven’t dreamed of us having sex since you came back but I still dream of you. You talk to me.”

  Her body got tight and she asked, “Talk to you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What do I say?”

  “You wake me up. Tell me you need to get to work. The two times I was at your place, you told me to get home to my boys.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Yep.”

  She relaxed then asked, “Why?”

  “What?”

  “Why?” Rocky repeated. “Why are you dreaming of me?”

  “No clue,” Layne answered. “But I like havin’ you here and there.” He pulled her face to his until their lips were touching. “Best of both worlds.”

  He felt her smile then he kissed her lightly, released her jaw and she moved down to rest against his chest again.

  “So, you going to tell me what you learned with your search?” she prompted.

  After he’d kissed her at her place, he’d rendez voused with Ryker who was waiting by Layne’s truck. Ryker had told Layne he’d scoped out unit K, apartment three and assured him he was “on the job” then took off on his Harley. Layne went to the office, ran his searches, ran more because of the results and got home in time for his mother to lecture him on punctuality and courtesy and since dinner was ready, Keira was there again and Devin was home and visibly salivating to tuck into beef tenderloin, Layne hadn’t had a chance to brief Rocky.

  He did get the chance to watch her eat an ice cream cone and therefore they went to bed early.

  “Both cars are registered to a woman,” Layne told her. “Victoria Aubry.”

  “Victoria Aubry,” Rocky whispered.

  “You heard that name?” Layne asked and she shook her head against his chest so he went on. “She rents the apartment too. She’s also married to a man named Baxter Aubry.”

  Her head came up and he felt her eyes on him through the dark. “Who’s that?”

  “Driver’s license picture in the system shows he’s TJ Gaines.”

  “Oh my,” she breathed.

  “Yep,” he replied.

  “What else?” she prompted.

  “Nothin’,” Layne said and Rocky was silent.

  Then she said, “Nothing?”

  “Not one fuckin’ thing. Both of them came into existence about nine months ago. I’ve run every check there is, couldn’t find anything. They got credit cards, bank accounts, own their cars outright, pay their insurance, rent, utilities on time, except they do it with cash. Only thing they pay with check is the credit cards which, even though they live high, are cleared every month.”

  “What does this tell you?” she asked.

  “Well, seein’ as I dug deeper and found Victoria Aubry died of a stroke at age eight-two six years ago and her husband Baxter Aubry died a year and a half later of emphysema, it tells me the least those two are guilty of is identity theft.”

  “Shit,” she whispered.

  “Other than that, not much else,” Layne finished.

  “What’s next?”

  “What’s next is, we need a fuckin’ print. For both of ‘em.”

  “Right,” she said softly.

  “Baby,” he called and her arm squeezed him in response. “Goes without sayin’ it won’t be you gettin’ those prints.”

  Rocky’s body tensed and her voice was terse when she said, “Of course.”

  Layne slid down into the bed, taking her with him and rolling them both to their sides so they were face to face but his hand didn’t leave her ass and he gripped it when he murmured, “Just makin’ sure you stay my good girl.”

  He felt her body give a small jerk before she relaxed into him and kissed his throat.

  “I’m still your good girl,” she whispered there.

  “Good,” he whispered back.

  Her face came out of his throat and her head settled on the pillow. “Isn’t that enough?” she asked. “Identity theft is bad, even if people are dead. Can’t you hand it over to Merry now, get him away from those girls?”

  “Yep,” Layne answered.

  “Are you going to do that?”

  “Yep, Merry or Colt or Sully or Mike, whoever I get to first.”

  “Excellent,” she replied quietly.

  “One problem with that, sweetcheeks,” Layne told her.

  “What?”

  “There’s somethin’ bigger here, somethin’ we don’t know. They got a shitload of money in the bank, they live high, she’s got a nice car, his is less than a year old, middle of the road but top of the line of its model. She’s either into somethin’ or they’re bankrolled.”

  “So?”

  “So, a weed grows, you don’t pull off its leaves, you yank out the root. My gut tells me there’s a big man pullin’ their strings and that man’s gotta go down so this stops, not only here but everywhere.”

  “But the girls –”

  “I’ll take care of the
girls,” Layne assured her.

  “How?”

  “People like this, they got one allegiance, it isn’t to the head honcho, it isn’t even to money, it’s to themselves. If they know they’re fucked, they’ll play.”

  “Sorry?”

  “We turn ‘em.”

  “Layne, I’m not getting –”

  “We get to them, get them to make a deal. In exchange for reduced jail time, they give us the big man and, in the meantime, stop whatever shit they’re doin’ with the girls.”

  She was silent a second then she said, “Oh.” Then she shared her news. “Rumor in the halls is, Seth is taking Alexis McGraw out for pizza after the game tomorrow.”

  Layne grinned.

  Rocky continued, “And, word today was, Youth Group attendance spiked last night. It’s become the hot, in thing to go and see what the Layne boys are up to. Apparently, Jasper, Seth and their friend Mitch didn’t disappoint and TJ-slash-Baxter had his hands full attempting to explain how there could be dinosaurs and Adam and Eve. Not to mention, since half the football team was there, it’s becoming the hot spot to see and be seen, pick up chicks and socialize. It sounded to me like Wednesday’s Youth Group meeting was half Single’s Club and half philosophical debate on religion, both of which TJ-slash-Baxter didn’t have the tools to deal with.”

  Layne’s grin turned into a smile. He’d seen himself the number of kids who’d walked out and it wasn’t sixty, it was more like eighty or higher. Jasper had been at work which was good. Part of Gaines’s advantage was that there were concerns voiced in whispers but no action. The more attention Youth Group had, the more parents would start waking up and asking questions and not in whispers, especially when Christian Youth Group became a Single’s Club for teenagers and an opportunity to jack around. It would be hard to recruit young girls for whatever he needed them for when they were more interested in the football team and when your attention was diverted by questions about creationism to which you probably didn’t have the answers and with angry parents breathing down your neck.

  “Ryker’s surveilling the apartment,” Layne told Rocky. “We’ll see what he gets and if he can find a time when I can get in there. I’ll get prints, get someone at the Station to run them and have a sit down with the boys.” He gave her a squeeze and murmured, “This’ll be over soon, baby.”