Rock Chick 03 Redemption (12 page)

The thing wasn’t even about Bil y. I had the feeling that Hank might understand about Bil y. Hank was a good guy and it was pretty clear he liked me (okay, so it was real y clear he liked me).

I wasn’t entirely certain I wanted to test this idea, however.

No, it was about sleeping with Hank on the first date.

I was
such
a slut.

What must he think of me?

I might have been able to explain about Bil y if I hadn’t slept with Hank on the first date. Now, he’d just think I was easy; an easy girl from Indiana who’d fuck criminals and cops without blinking an eye.

I’d even said please.

There was only one solution to this problem.

I had to get out of there.

Immediately.

Not just get out of Hank’s house but out of Denver.

My plan to leave Bil y was screwed. I had to abort and start al over again.

I moved and Shamus jerked and sat up.

I froze, listening, but Hank didn’t wake.

“Let’s go boy, move out,” I whispered to Shamus, shoving him a bit and he jumped off the bed. I slid out from under Hank and then stopped again, waiting. He stil didn’t wake so I got out of bed. Shamus thought it was playtime and wagged his tail, running to the door of the room and back to me.

“Shh!” I hissed. “Come here. Sit!” Shamus did as he was told and I heard his tail sweeping the floor with excitement.

He thought we were going to take a midnight strol , maybe go to a park and play Frisbee. Crazy dog.

I gave him an ear scratch, wishing I could play Frisbee with him (not at that exact moment, but at some moment, eventual y, and it caught at my heart that I knew I never would).

He licked my hand.

That caught at my heart too.

“You’re such a good boy,” I told him, meaning it and also wishing Hank didn’t have a dog. It was hard enough dealing with al that was Hank, add a dog to the mix and it was nearly impossible.

“Stay,” I commanded and Shamus obeyed.

I started searching for my clothes in the dark and tripped over one of my Mary Jane’s.

“Shit!” I whispered and looked toward the bed.

Hank hadn’t moved.

Thank God.

I found my underwear and jeans but tripped over Hank’s boot on the way to my shirt.

“Fuck!” I snapped and gave up, feeling like a fool, rooting around naked in the dark. Much better to root around in the dark partial y dressed.

I put on my underwear and Shamus lost patience with waiting and walked over to me. He leaned his furry body into my legs and I could feel it undulating with the force of his tail wags.

“Sit Shamus. Be good,” I mumbled, doing another head scratch while Shamus settled on my feet.

I was straightening from the dog, jeans stil in my hand when the light came on.

My head snapped up and I looked at the bed.

Hank came back from stretching to reach the light and sat up on an elbow, his eyes settling on me. He looked sleepy, hair tousled, chest bared and my breath caught. He might look handsome normal y, kickass handsome angry and melt-in-your-mouth handsome when he casual y drove his car but sleepy he was a knockout.

“What’re you doin’?” he asked.

“You’re awake,” I pointed out the obvious.

“The neighbors are awake with al your racket. What’re you doin’?”

“I’m leaving.”

Uh… not good.

One second, he looked sleepy, the next second, he looked pissed off.

“What did you say?” he asked.

I looked down, anything not to look at Hank, and pul ed my feet out from under Shamus.

“I’m gonna cal a cab and I’m leaving.”

Deprived of my feet, Shamus got up and pressed his body against my legs again. This was unfortunate as I was trying to put on my jeans, thus hopping around on one leg and avoiding Shamus at the same time. Not exactly graceful but I had nothing left to lose.

I shouldn’t have looked down. Without warning, Hank was there. He jerked my arm pul ing me off balance. I dropped the jeans and col ided with him and Shamus.

Shamus scooted out from between us, then pressed against both of us.

Hank was naked. I hadn’t had a chance to get a good look at him, what with being entirely too tuned into how turned on he was making me. I knew he had a great chest but my quick glance showed me he pretty much had a great everything else as wel .

I ignored his great everything else and snapped. “Hey!” trying to pul my arm away but Hank held on tight. In fact, his free hand came up and grabbed my other arm.

“Get back into bed,” he said, looking down at me.

“I’m going,” I told him.

“You’re not going.”

I was stil trying to pul away. I was stil not succeeding.

“I am.”

“Why?”

“Does it matter?”

“Why?”

Jeez, there was just no shaking this guy.

“Let go,” I was getting kind of desperate. I dropped my gaze to his chest, raised my hands there and began to push.

He shook me gently to get my attention. It worked. I looked back up.

“Tel me why you’re sneakin’ out of my bed in the middle of the night.”

“Hank –”

“Answer me, goddammit!”

Holy cow.

He wasn’t pissed off anymore, he was angry. I couldn’t only see it on his face; I could feel it emanating from his body. For some reason, it didn’t scare me. He had it in check. It was entirely control ed. I knew that like I knew there were no other jeans in the world as good as Lucky jeans.

It did make me talk, however. I didn’t like that he was angry, not at me.

“I’m not a slut,” I blurted out.

His hands on my arms relaxed but didn’t go away and he blinked one of his slow blinks. “Sorry?” he asked.

“I’m not a slut.”

God, I sounded like an idiot. Now, I had to explain. “I’m not a slut. Never have I slept with a guy on a first date.

Never. Never. Never.”

“Roxanne –” he started to say but I forged ahead.

“Bil… the last guy, it took, like, three weeks to get to third base and at least a month before we did it. I swear.”

“Roxie –” Hank began again but I kept talking.

“Before him, there was Derek, and we were dating, like, forever before we did it and it was unfortunate when we did because he wasn’t very good at it. Then there was Kenny and I don’t even remember how long it took before we did it. He was a jerk; once we did, he dumped me.”

“Roxie –” Hank said again and started to pul me against his body but I had my arms up between us and, like the total idiot I was, I was counting down my ex-lovers on my fingers.

“Then there was Troy, he was a good kisser, like you, but it stil took, I don’t know, at least
two weeks
before I let him get his hands up my shirt. Wait, Troy doesn’t count because we never did it in the end. I saw him making out with my friend Kim and I broke up with him. What a bitch. I forgot about her.”

Hank now had his arms around me, Shamus was sitting beside us, his doggie body resting against our legs and I was oblivious to this because I was on a rol .

“Then, there was Scott, he was my first. We dated for at least
a year
until we final y did it. He married the prom queen and now they’ve got half a dozen kids, no joke.” I stopped and looked up at Hank.

He was looking down at me, angry gone, pissed off a memory, he was smiling again with only his eyes engaged in the smile.

Shit.

Had I just recited al my lovers to Hank?

I had.

Shit.

“You finished?” Hank asked.

“I’m an idiot.”

Hank bent his head and rubbed his nose against mine.

Then he gave me a light kiss.

That was nice but I stil felt like I was now at least thirty different types of fool.

“I’m a slut
and
an idiot,” I told him.

“You aren’t a slut and you aren’t an idiot,” he said authoritatively, making me believe that at least he believed it.

Then his hands came up my back and undid my bra.

“No! Don’t do that, I have to go.”

He ignored me, slid the straps down my arms and tossed the bra aside. Then, his hands went down my back, tossed the bra aside. Then, his hands went down my back, he bent, I felt them go over my bottom and he jerked me up.

I threw my arms around him and he turned and deposited me on the bed and he came down on top of me.

His weight felt good on me, too good.

“Whisky, get off me. I need to go.”

His hands were on me and I liked how they made me feel, I liked it a whole lot. His fingers tagged my panties and started to pul them down.

Against my neck, he said, “You stil want to go after I fuck you again, I’l take you back to the hotel.” Holy cow.

My stomach did a dip.

I tried to ignore the dip and the subsequent melty feeling.

I had to be strong. Or, at least, I had to try to be strong.

“No. No more fucking. I’ve got to sort out my problem then, if you’re stil around when it’s done, we’l try this again but we’l take it slow and get to know each other before we, uh… carry on… er, like this.”

His head came up and he looked at me. I could tel right away he thought I was funny.

“Sunshine, I know you’re crazy, and I have to admit it’s sweet, but you’re al kinds of crazy if you think I’m waitin’ to get inside you again.”

Holy cow. The melty feeling graduated to a rol ing boil.

“Hank…”

He’d stopped pul ing down my underwear at my hips, his hand went to cup my pubic bone and he kissed me.

Shit.

I felt the little, itty bit of strength I was clinging to start I felt the little, itty bit of strength I was clinging to start slipping away as his tongue moved against mine.

“Open your legs,” he said against my mouth.

“I need you to understand,” I said, and I did. In that instant, I decided that I was going to tel him everything and I
needed
him to understand.

“You can explain it tomorrow. Now I want you to open your legs.”

I kept my legs firmly closed. “What if I explain it to you tomorrow and you don’t understand?”

In answer, he kissed me until I was dizzy. After the kiss, his lips trailed down my cheek to my ear. “Roxanne, sweetheart, open your legs for me,” he whispered.

I opened my legs.

I was weak and I couldn’t help myself but truly, at that moment, I would have done anything for him.

He rewarded me immediately. Later, I rewarded him.

Even later stil , I’d lost al thoughts about leaving. My back was pressed to his chest, his arm was around me, my arm resting on his and our fingers were laced. I was half asleep when he murmured, “Whatever it is, I’l understand.” I snuggled deeper and prayed that was true.

* * * * *

“Wake up, Sunshine.”

I rol ed to my back, the hand stayed where it was so it moved across to my bel y as I opened my eyes.

It was the best wakeup cal I’d ever had.

Hank was sitting on the bed, leaning over me. It was stil dark outside although a little light was coming through the blinds and there was also light coming from some other part of the house through the doorway. I could see he was dressed in a Rip Curl t-shirt and pair of dark track pants that had a wide stripe running down the side.

“You’re dressed,” I mumbled.

“Shamus and I are goin’ for a run. We’l come back, shower and I’l take you out for breakfast.” I blinked.

“Run?” I asked.

“Run,” he answered.

“As in, exercise?”

His lips twitched. “Yeah.”

“Why?”

“I take it you don’t run.”

“Only when chased by men wielding chainsaws.” The lip twitch turned into a grin. “That happen a lot?”

“No, but Al y says there’s one at the Haunted House she wants to take me to.”

The smile died and his brows drew together.

“Christ, don’t go to the Haunted Houses with Al y and Indy. A few years ago, Indy went berserk and broke through the hay bales they had set up to make the haunted trail and headed into the cornfields. Al the employees chased after her but since they were dressed like monsters, Indy lost her mind. They had to cal the cops to settle her down.” I lost him at “cornfields”.

“Cornfields?” I whispered.

“Yeah.”

“They have a haunted trail through cornfields?”

“Yeah, up in Thornton. Best Haunted House in Denver.

Indy and Al y go every year. Why?”

“Cornfields freak me out,” I admitted.

Hank was silent.

Then, he said, “You’re from Indiana. How in
the
fuck can cornfields freak you out?”

“Cornfields don’t freak me out. Cornfields at night freak me out.
Haunted
cornfields at night freak me out.”

“You been to many haunted cornfields?”

“Dude,” I said low. “Al cornfields are haunted. Trust me. I know.” Then I came up on my elbows so I was closer to him and I said quietly, “They whisper to you.” Then I gave a shiver because, wel , the memory of whispering cornfields freaked me out, indeed, whispering cornfields should freak anybody out.

His arms came around me and he pul ed me ful y up and pressed my torso against his. I knew he was laughing. I didn’t hear it I felt it. After his body quit shaking he said,

“Did you just cal me ‘dude’?”

“Yeah. So?”

His hand went into my hair at the side of my head, his fingers sliding through it. This made my scalp tingle pleasantly. He watched his hand move, then his eyes came back to me.