Below The Line Read online

  “Don’t cost Cameron B her life.” It’s Lo’ren and he is pissed. “Haddie, come home and face it. We’ll go easy on you if you come on your own. You got two days. You don’t bring your ass back, the hit will be ordered and it won’t be on you.”

  Shit, fuck, dammit all to hell. Lo’ren called himself. And it’s Owen he will put the hit on. The bastard boy that has cost Lo’ren more than money since the day he came to be.

  Everything I’ve done has been to keep Owen alive.

  Tossing the cheap prepaid phone in the trash, I step inside the building in front of me. It happens to be the public library. If I play my cards right, I can hide in the bathroom when they get ready to lock up and stay here safely for the night. After I get some sleep, I’ll be okay. I need rest and a clear head to sort out my next move.

  Making my perch on the toilet with my feet pressed against the stall door, I’m relieved when the afternoon library clerk locks the door behind her. Doing a clean up in the bathroom sink, I feel slightly refreshed and ready to get a good night’s sleep. Finding a cozy nook, I drag two bean bag chairs from the Young Adult section over to the Romance corner and make myself a bed.

  Reading until after dark, I finally drift off to sleep. For the first time in far too long, I sleep through the night and a little too heavy. The sounds of the morning librarian and front clerk coming in wake me in a start. Carefully, I hide between the rows of bookshelves until I find my opportunity to slip out of the front door. Thankfully, small towns don’t think to equip their libraries with security systems. I caught a break for the first time in a long damn time.

  The fresh air hits my face and I breathe deep. What to do next?

  Before I can go left or right, I hear the distinct sound of a group of motorcycles pulling up. Panic fills me. It’s not Lo’ren’s usual style to use a biker gang, but then again, he could pay anyone to bring me home.

  “Hadley Lauryn Combs stand up straight and walk tall.” I give myself a pep talk. The one thing I learned on the streets is the more you blend in the harder you are to find. It’s the ones who walk around like a deer in the headlights who get found when they don’t want to. No matter where I go or where I’ve been, I pretend I know where I’m going and what I’m doing. The more people think I belong and have a job to do, the less they question who I really am and what I’m really doing.

  I make it to the intersection by the library before the bikes are pulling up beside me. I don’t look at them. Who they are is not my business. What they’re doing even more not my business … well, unless they’re here for me.

  The whistle and catcall I fight to ignore.

  “Oh she’s ignoring us, X. Better teach your woman she can’t run and she can’t hide,” a man’s voice teases me. “Even if I do love a game of hide and seek.”

  “Shut the fuck up, Trapper!” Owen’s voice radiates and I turn my head. There he is. All tall, built, short dark facial hair in a five o’clock shadow because he needs to shave, a backwards baseball hat hidden under his helmet, and the face of steel is watching my every intake of breath.

  In short, I’m fucked.

  My options being limited, I look up and meet his stare. Our eyes lock and like a compass pointing north I’m drawn to him. I should run, right? Getting tied up with Owen will only lead to both our demises.

  Yet, before I stop myself, I walk out to the street. Approaching his motorcycle, he extends his hand to me. I climb on like it’s something we do everyday. I secure my small crossbody purse between us before he twists the throttle and we take off. The jolt pushes me back and with nothing to rest against, I have to grab Owen and hold on tight. The wind hits my face stinging my eyes as my hair blows wildly around me. The vibration of the bike tingles under me. Holding onto him settles me in a way I haven’t felt in far too long.

  There are five other bikes around us. Four of them are of men riding alone and the fifth one has a woman holding on happily to her man. I read the back of their leather vests where it says Devil’s Due. The picture of a red devil face with angel wings seems to be calling to me in a different way and it distracts me from where we turn off. We ride and ride for what feels like hours.

  Finally, when I think my legs will never feel the same again, we pull into a motel parking lot.

  “I’ll get your room key, X,” a man says climbing off his bike. I can see the patch on his chest that says Rowdy and I assume that is his name.

  Remaining still behind Owen, I don’t make a move to get off and he doesn’t make a move to have me get up.

  The woman approaches as she removes her helmet and smiles. Reaching in her pocket she pulls out something before extending her hand to me. “Hair tie, you’ll learn fast you need a braid otherwise you gotta wash and condition to get a comb through your hair after a ride.” Squinting my eyes, I remember she’s Sonnie, the chick who did my tattoo in Alabama.

  I nod thinking I don’t plan to ride often so this is unnecessary. Then again, when was the last time I actually had an opportunity to accept someone’s kindness?

  The answer is easy, but the situation is complicated. All the kindness I’ve ever had was when I was fifteen and Owen shared everything he had with me.

  “We’ll get rooms with Judge and Rowdy, Deacon and Trapper, you and Hadley can have all the time you need to catch up,” the man with a patch that reads Collector says while wrapping his arm around the woman’s shoulder. “Given the situation, we’ll rotate a watch over y’all so breathe easy for tonight.”

  Owen doesn’t speak, he doesn’t move. He continues to sit on his bike with his feet planted firmly on the ground with me securely behind him. He nods his head. The man who went and got our room came out handing Owen a key card. Then they all scatter leaving me alone with the man from my past.

  “Hadley,” his voice is strained. “Climb off. Don’t take off or I swear to God I’ll tie you to me.”

  My body shakes with the emotions I can sense from him. Slowly, timidly, I climb off and stand beside him. My legs feel like I have been on a boat and it takes me a moment to feel like I can stand straight up and take a step. He climbs off, grabs a bag from inside the saddlebag on his bike never saying a word.

  Taking me by the hand he leads me to a hotel room. Not a single word is spoken between us. He guides me inside the space, locking the door behind us.

  Spinning me around, my back hits the wall beside the door of the darkened room. The only light comes from the window on the backside of the room. His lips crash to mine in what feels like a battle of wills. Only as I kiss him back with as much passion, emotion, and need I’m not sure if I’m winning or losing.

  No words are shared between us. There is nothing to say that can overpower the depth of emotions shared between us. Hot need, desire, and deep rooted love rush through me after far too many years of pushing them down.

  I have to process the moment. This is my first experience where a man isn’t forcing himself on me, or paying me for services. This is real and it’s all mine and Owen’s.

  Pressing his tongue to my lips I open as his body pushes me into the unmoving wall. I feel the tug as he moves my hair off my shoulder. God, what a mess I must be, I think after the woman gave me a hair tie and I didn’t use it. The band is on my wrist taunting me. His lips pull from mine allowing us both to come up for air. That’s when his head drops to my neck and he sucks.

  Hard.

  “Fucking alive. Hadley, you’re here, you’re alive.”

  “Yes,” I say in a whimper moan.

  “Touching you, kissing you, feeling you. It’s real.” His words come out in pants.

  I sense his need. My own needs taking over in a way that is pure instinct, I tug at his belt buckle.

  He growls before his tongue traces my neck line and teases behind my ear. Pushing him away he backs and I yank my shirt over my head.

  “I’m here, Owen.”

  Roughly, he steps back to me and tugs my breasts from the cups of my bra releasing them. The air is cool b
ut not cold. My nipples protrude showing my desire. For a moment, I hesitate. Owen’s eyes meet mine, the desire blazing as his nostrils flare.

  His head drops to my breasts; his tongue traces my nipple before he sucks. I grip his head holding him to me as the tears threaten to spill over. He releases me.

  “Who did it?” His voice is menacing. “Your nipple, you don’t feel, it’s torn, who fucking did it.”

  “Please Owen, don’t let anyone or anything be between us. Just for tonight. Forget the past, forget what’s to come. Let me have this moment to make a memory. Make it last a lifetime.”

  I need to have him inside me. I’ve never had this feeling before. This need to open myself to someone and let myself really feel a connection. I know what the future holds and it isn’t promising. Allowing my heart one night to get me through the lifetime of hell waiting for me seems reasonable as my body comes alive for the first time in my thirty years of life.

  Reaching out, I unbutton and unzip his pants. His thick length is tenting the pants. “Please,” I beg.

  He doesn’t speak. Instead, he reaches out and pulls my black stretchy pants down taking my panties with him. Dropping to his knees in front of me, he takes them all the way off. His nose hits my sex and he inhales as my hair seems to tickle his mouth. I wish I could have shaved. I’ve been on the run so long and razors cost money I didn’t have to spare. My embarrassment is quickly gone when his tongue flicks out teasing the lips of my pussy.

  I moan as my excitement builds. He spreads my legs massaging my thighs. I start to hesitate knowing he has to feel the raised skin. His onslaught to my pussy is like a man starved and I’m the meal he’s devouring. I feel my knees give out as my insides quiver. My brand being seen and felt is forgotten. Shamelessly, I rock to him fucking his face. He slides his thumb inside my core while laying his first finger between my ass cheeks and covering my anus while sliding the finger over the whole giving more sensations as he licks my clit.

  He sucks just as he twirls his thumb in a circle inside me and I swear I lose all ability to see, think, smell, or hear as the orgasm rolls through me.

  “Owen!” I cry out his name and he scoops me up before I swear I would have fallen to the floor.

  “I got you,” he says carrying me to the bed.

  “You’ve always had me,” I whisper as my body wakes up from a lifelong slumber ready for more with the man in front of me.

  Chapter Five

  ~Owen~

  Hadley is laying here, naked. I have to catch my breath. She is almost angelic. Once again, she’s alive and with me.

  I step back away from the bed and admire the beauty in front of me. Her long dark hair cascades down over her full breasts. The pinks of her pointed nipples call out to my lips, begging for attention. Even split they are still gorgeous. It pains me to think of everything she has been through as my mind wonders what happened to her and when it happened.

  I remind myself of the feelings I carried for too long thinking she was dead. You only live once they say. I want to treasure each moment. More than anything right now, I want to touch, feel, savor each inch of the beautiful woman in front of me.

  I walk forward, laying my frame over hers with my elbows at each side of her head. Her chest rises and falls in deep breaths, as she trembles slightly under me.

  My heart hurts for all she’s endured. Her body carries the scars of too many years of damage. I can’t think of it right now. I need to feel her, have her, know that she’s here.

  “Hadley,” I say, still struggling to believe she’s here.

  My eyes roam south to the juncture of her hips. I lick my lips in anticipation of everything I want to do to this woman. Hadley Combs is under me, naked and waiting.

  The air is tense with desire and unspoken years of emotions between us.

  She reaches up with one finger against my lips. She whispers to me, I’m not sure if it’s to herself, to me, or to both of us.

  “It’s been a long damn time.” Her breath is hot as it mixes with mine. “Never thought I would ever know it could be good.” Her eyes shift like they are chasing away a bad memory. “Escape. Be my escape and my body be yours.”

  I want to ask her so many questions. Part of me wants to slam the brakes and sort everything out. It’s this crazy confliction. The war wages inside of me.

  The other part of me, the man inside needs to slide so deep in her I won’t know where we ever had a single moment of separation in our entire lives.

  I let go of the past and keep myself in the moment.

  Instinct.

  Fate.

  The mother fucking moon, I don’t know what it is and don’t give a single shit. I just need to feel her.

  Forget it all. Forget the damage to her body, the scars, the bumps, the burns, everything I see and feel over her, and escape to a world that is our own.

  Leaning down, I kiss her lightly. In response, she pushes her chest against me. Taking her bottom lip into my mouth, I nip, then suck gently. Her hands wrap around my neck pulling me in closer. Licking her lips with my tongue, I slowly tease my way into her mouth. Laying over her, I press my body over hers letting her take my weight. Moving her hair, I trail kisses down her neck. I suck briefly on the spot behind her ear before tugging her earlobe with my teeth. Kissing my way down to her tits, I suck hard on her nipple flicking the tip with my tongue. She doesn’t react until my mouth finds the underside of her tits to which I lick and then blow giving a mixed sensation. Her moan in response increases the blood flow to my already hard cock.

  She moves her legs to settle me between her. My cock is at her entrance as she rocks against me. Hadley’s eyes are like a beacon of light drawing me safely into shore like a lighthouse. She wants me inside her as badly as I want to be there. We’re not teens anymore. This isn’t infatuation, hormone driven lust – this is deep seeded, embedded, soul joining emotions.

  “Let go, Owen. Escape with me.” She whispers between kisses as she bites my neck.

  Without a second thought, I thrust inside her. My cock piercing grazes her clit as I enter her, causing her to shake in my arms. She’s so fucking tight. It takes me off guard. I still, momentarily, allowing her body the chance to adjust to my size. The moment seems to consume us both as she looks in my eyes. There’s an unconditional acceptance in her eyes staring at me.

  She owns my soul completely, always has. Does she realize the power she’s always had?

  I begin to move in and out of her. My Prince Albert piercing rubs the inner wall of her core as I slowly bring myself all the way to the edge of being out of her and then glide back in. She trembles around me at each thrust. She’s rocking against me, moaning as she builds up.

  Picking up speed, her body milks me, seeking her own release. Dropping my head, I suck hard on her neck as I slam hard and fast into her, sending her over the edge.

  I fight inside myself to slow my own release. The tickle up down my spine settles in my balls. I dread the impending end. Part of me wonders if she’ll disappear on me again. I can’t have just once. Now that we’ve had this moment, I can’t ever let her go.

  “Oooooooooowen,” she cries out as her body is shaking around me.

  I shoot hot liquid come inside her without a second thought to protecting either of us. Hadley has always been my weakness, my kryptonite. She’s my strength and weakness all wrapped in one.

  Letting her ride out her orgasm, I hold her close. Her head is resting on my chest, as we both get our breathing back to normal. I pull out of her slowly as she gives me a satisfied smile.

  Going to the bathroom, I run warm water over a wash cloth. When I return Hadley is still laying on the bed. She leans up on her elbows to look at me.

  “I’m clean.” I blurt out trying to ease any fears she may have.

  “I have an IUD. And I’m tested regularly,” she rambles, “With my job and all, but it’s been almost a year since I was with someone and I was tested right before I left,” she tries for nonchalance
as she reaches out to try to take the cloth from me. I don’t know if I want to know what this refers to.

  “My mess, I’ll clean it up.” I say as I try to sort out her words and what job she’s actually talking about. As I wipe my come from her pussy, I tell my cock to keep it down.

  Finishing up, I walk back to the bed and slide in beside her covering us both. She snuggles into me like she did so many years ago. Inhaling, I smell the lavender in her hair and our sex in the air.

  Can we come full circle?

  We were young, too young to know what we could have together. In all the years no one has touched me as deep and as hard as Hadley. Closing my eyes, I try to wrap my mind around it all. Part of me wants to ask Trapper to pinch me or punch me so I know this shit is real.

  I’m not an emotional man … except when it deals with Hadley.

  What happens next?

  Why did she leave and not come back to me? What actually happened to her that day? My body physically trembles thinking of her blood on the blanket beside me.

  “Owen, don’t think right now, please.” Hadley says softly against my chest as her fingertips gently trace the ink on my stomach and chest.

  “Trying to figure out if I’m dreaming.” I decide to give back honestly.

  “Definitely dreaming,” she whispers and I feel the hot wet of her tears hit my skin.

  I squeeze her tightly but don’t speak. Honestly, I don’t know what to say. I can’t fix this when I don’t even know what this is. The only thing I do know is somehow we have this second chance between us. We have a new opportunity to make it all right.

  Time has passed. We are two different people, but the connection is still the same. It wasn’t about sex when we were teens and it isn’t about sex now. This is her and this is me, this is us. I’ve never had peace until tonight.

  When my mother was murdered in front of me, it didn’t hit me the way the loss of Hadley has. She’s really here with me.

  The demons in my mind have questions. I should ask her where she’s been at least. What kind of job does she have where she gets tested, my gut twists painfully thinking of her with anyone else much less what her statements have implied.