Hood River Zero (Hood River Hoodlums Book 4) Page 12

  “I don’t know what I’m doing,” I murmur.

  “You’re just kissing me, baby. That’s all.”

  “But, I want—”

  “Stop talking,” he says, his voice playful. “That’ll happen another night. Not this one.”

  Knowing that I’m not expected to have sex has relief flooding through me. As much as I want to try these things with Terrence, I’m terrified I won’t be able to or that I’ll do it all wrong.

  “Can I take off my shirt?” I ask, my words sounding breathy and feminine to my ears.

  “Probably a bad idea, but I sure as fuck won’t complain.”

  I sit up and peel off the material, leaving me completely naked. My heart is hammering in my chest. Every nerve is buzzing inside of me.

  He sits up, hugging me to him as he scoots back on the bed, his back resting on the headboard. His palm covers my breast and then his mouth is there. Between my spread legs, his cock, barely contained by the material of his basketball shorts, presses against me. I rub against it, loving how he growls in response. He bites my nipple, making me gasp. Then, he’s sucking it hard but in a way that feels really good. My hips move, eager for the friction of his dick. Every time I rub him just the right way, pleasure teases at me.

  It’s intense and insane.

  Rather than running from my crazy, I chase it.

  “I need…” I murmur.

  Honestly, I don’t know what I need. I just feel like Terrence has it for me.

  “I know what you need.” His hot breath around my nipple makes me tremble. “Keep riding that dick, beautiful.”

  I flex my hips, eager to chase this feeling. His fingers trail their way to my pussy. Easily, he finds the part of me that aches for him. I whimper, but it doesn’t scare him away. If anything, it emboldens him. He latches onto my breast, sucking hard enough to bruise, as his fingers rub at my clit.

  All these years I’ve experimented to see if I could feel like other people, though I had no interest in touching myself. It felt mechanical and forced. Nothing I ever did felt like this.

  This is incredible.

  As though he knows my body better than me, he rubs in firm, small circles until it happens. I detonate like a bomb. Crying out, I arch my back as the elusive orgasm rips through me like lightning.

  He clutches my ass, taking a meaty handful, and groans against my neck. His dick throbs. I realize, once his shorts grow warm and wet, that he came too. Pride flutters through me like butterflies.

  I’m not weird, cold, inexperienced Penny.

  I’m a woman who is very much desired by this man.

  “I…” A stupid grin forms on my face. “Sorry about your shorts.”

  He chuckles. “Is my girl making fun of me?”

  “I think you like it when I make fun of you.”

  “Yeah, I guess I do.” He smacks my bare ass. “Get to sleep. I need to do something about this.”

  I roll off him, unable to wipe the smile off my face. The bedside light turns on and he climbs out of bed. Shamelessly, I watch as he pulls off his shorts, baring his nice ass to me. He grabs up a clean towel from a laundry basket and wipes off his front. I can’t help but check out his long, thick dick that still remains semi-erect. He locates a pair of white boxers and pulls them on.

  God, he’s like an underwear model.

  All muscles and sinful in a pair of boxers.

  “You’re trouble, English. I think I created a monster.” He tosses me a clean shirt, but I make no moves to grab it. “It’s like that, huh?”

  I shrug. “I don’t want to wear it. I like feeling you.”

  His amusement fades as he crawls into bed. He strokes his fingers through my messy, still damp hair and then caresses my breast. “Then stay just like this. I like feeling you too.”

  “Does that mean you’ll sleep naked too?”

  “If I sleep naked, we might as well kiss your virginity goodbye.”

  “You wouldn’t just take it,” I tell him.

  “No, but you’d hand it over, baby, and you’re not ready no matter how good this feels.”

  He pulls me to him and then turns off the light. I like the way my skin clings to his, both of us still sticky with sweat from moments earlier. My breasts are pressed into his ribs, which is an amazing feeling. I like feeling this close to him.

  I drift off, more relaxed than I’ve ever felt in my entire life.

  “Not judging, man, but I suggest you get clothes on this girl before her brother murders you. Roan texted they’re on their way with Sebban. Bringing donuts.” Cal laughs. “And it smells like sex in here. You better air out this room. I’m guessing you have about ten minutes left until Hollis shows up.”

  Terrence grumbles at him as he pulls the covers over our heads. The door clicks closed as Cal leaves.

  “Your brother is going to kill me,” Terrence says, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “Question is, do I stay here and take a beating or do I force the most beautiful girl in the world to put some clothes on?”

  “You almost died once and lived. You’ll probably evade death again. Let’s chance it and see.”

  “Are you teasing me, Penny English? Who knew? Just needed an orgasm, huh?”

  I smack at his chest, narrowing my eyes at him. “Stop talking.”

  “Gladly.” His mouth crashes to mine, uncaring that we both have morning breath. He rolls his body on top of mine, settling between my spread legs. “Is this okay?”

  “Yes,” I breathe. “Give me another orgasm. Hurry.”

  “Bossy.” He grins. “I promised you the tongue.”

  I curl my lip up at him. “Ew.”

  “Not ew. You’re going to love it.” He kisses his way down my chest and stomach. “If you don’t, you can have my donut.”

  I’m starving. For both orgasms and donuts. Either way, I win.

  “Stop talking and use your tongue for something better. If you think—fuck!”

  He nips at my clit, making my back come up off the bed. His palm covers my breast, pressing me down as his mouth assaults my pussy.

  He’s right.

  This feels amazing.

  I clutch onto his head, spreading my thighs to give him more access. He growls against me—hot and ravenous. His lips and tongue are all over me, exploring and teasing and tasting. It’s the single most wonderful thing I’ve ever felt in my entire life. He pushes his tongue inside of me. It’s strange and slick and foreign, but I like it. I want more. His fingers and his dick.

  “Mine,” he rumbles against my pussy. “This is mine.”

  “Yes.” Sure as heck doesn’t feel like it belongs to me anymore. Every nerve ending in my pussy seems to obey his every stroke of his tongue. “Oh God.”

  “Almost there, baby. I want your cream all over my tongue.” He starts fucking me with his tongue again as his thumb pleasures my clit.

  It’s too much.

  Not enough.

  My orgasm slices through me in an earth-shattering way. I lose all sense of reality, swept up in the overwhelming sensations running through me. When I finally relax, he crawls over me until our mouths meet.

  He tastes different now.

  Like me.

  His dick is hard and straining through his boxers. I know he said we wouldn’t, but I want it so bad. I want him.

  “Terrence,” I beg.

  “I know, baby. I want it too. Not yet. Give it time. Give us time.”

  Car doors slam outside and his eyes widen.

  “Hollis really will murder me. Get dressed, woman.”

  I curl my lip up at him. “Hollis isn’t my dad—”

  And then I hear it. Him.

  “Where is she?” the familiar voice demands.

  “Just getting dressed,” Cal says to my freaking dad. “Want a cup of coffee, man?”

  Terrence flies out of the bed and dresses in three seconds flat. I roll my eyes and then put on the shirt he offers me. He tosses some shorts with drawstrings my way.

  �
��We’ll continue this later, baby,” he assures me. “If I thought Hollis would kill me, there’s no telling what your dad would do if he caught us in here.”

  “I’m a big girl,” I sass as I pull on the pants.

  “With me, sure. Your dad, though, will always see you as his little girl.”

  I climb out of his bed and hug him. “Try not to die. I like you.”

  “Aww, English,” he says, stroking my hair. “In Penny-speak, that means you love me.”

  “Stop talking.”

  He laughs and it warms me to my heart.

  Terrence is right about something. I’m falling for him. Hard. And I am so out of my depth here. I’d rather drown, though, than give up any of this with him.

  Terrence

  I rush into the bathroom, needing to brush my teeth and wash up. There’s no fucking way I’m going to carry on a conversation with Garrett with his daughter’s arousal smeared all over my face. I’m not Cal. That fucker is fearless. I almost died once. Not looking to do that shit again.

  After I’m clean and ready to face Garrett, I exit the bathroom. The small cabin is bustling with activity. Charlotte is in the kitchen at the coffee machine with Cal wrapped around her. Hollis is pouring milk for Sebban while Roan inhales a donut.

  Jace, the big motherfucker he is, sits sprawled out on the sofa like he owns the place.

  “Where’s Garrett?” I ask, as I sit down beside him.

  “Checking on the girls in your room. Charlotte called this morning to tell him what happened.” His amber eyes flash. “I’m here in case we need to kill anyone.”

  “If Cal would have got his hands on Eli or Paxton last night, he sure as shit would have for as pissed as he was.” I rub at my temple, hating that a headache is starting to form this morning. “Now that he’s clearheaded, he’ll come up with something a little more fitting for those douchebags. A beating to death is too simple.”

  He nods. “I still think we should beat their asses. Those fuckers messed with my girl.”

  Jace doesn’t seem the type to fuck around with girls twice as young as him, but I still get unnerved by his words. She’s my girl, not his.

  “Whatever happened with your kid, man?” he asks, brows furling. “Samantha is pretty good about that shit. I figured you’d know by now.”

  “I don’t know,” I say with a heavy sigh. “She says she’s working on it. It’s probably Jack, though. He’s not exactly a cool guy or easy to work with.”

  Cal drops into the recliner. “How you were even friends with that guy is beyond me.”

  Jace whips his head in his direction. “Me?”

  “Yeah, Daddy Hoodlum. You. Dad said you and Jack Henderson were buddies in high school. He’s such a fucking loser.”

  Jace tenses. “I’m not friends with him. We hung in the same circles, but we weren’t tight. What the fuck? That wife-beating piece of shit is your kid’s grandpa?”

  “Wife-beating?” I growl out. “How the fuck do you know he beat his wife?”

  “Jack and Vicki were together in high school but broke up because he gave her a fucking black eye at a football game. Everyone saw. She was mortified. Ended up hooking up with one of our friends and later got pregnant. When that dude bailed, Vicki took that piece of shit back.” Jace shakes his head. “I heard through friends that he wasn’t good to her or her daughter.”

  Lacey.

  Bile rises in my throat.

  My mind drifts to the summer before my senior year of high school. To the one night I was with Lacey Henderson before she vanished into the night without another word.

  “Don’t act like all this bullshit between us hasn’t just been foreplay leading to this night.”

  Her eyes skate down my chest once more, lingering at my dick, before she looks down at her feet. “I’m not a virgin. Sex isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, though. It’s kind of boring. And messy.”

  “All I heard was that you fucked some loser who couldn’t get you off and came all over your stomach like he thought he was a porn star and now you’re jaded.” I step away from my pile of clothes and slowly approach her. “How close was I?”

  “Right on it,” she admits, her brows tugging together.

  I fist the front of her T-shirt and pull her to me. My other hand slides beneath the material, skimming over her ribs to settle on her lower back. “I’m not boring,” I murmur, dipping my head low so I can inhale her. “And if we fuck in the river, it won’t be messy either.”

  She gasps when I slide my hand into her shorts. I give the flesh an appreciative squeeze.

  “Ready to get naked, Lacey?”

  “Not really.” Her voice comes out in a whispered quiver.

  “I won’t hurt you,” I murmur. “You know that, right?”

  She nods and fuck if my heart doesn’t tighten inside my chest.

  “I’m going to make you feel really damn good. And then, when school starts back on Monday, Moaning Lisa, you have to be nice to me.”

  Lacey glowers sometimes, but mostly she remains impassive. Like that stupid Mona Lisa painting we studied in art class. The same painting she so passionately spoke about to the teacher when she had to present her report over it. Some asshole named Troy suggested she get a room with the painting since she loved it so much and went on to make some porny moans that got his ass detention. We’ve been calling her Moaning Lisa ever since.

  I chuckle, sliding my fingers along her ass crack. “Are you even capable of being nice?”

  She steps back, pulling away from my touch, and glares. “I can’t make that promise. But if you make me feel good, I can promise tonight. You make it good for me and I’ll buy you breakfast. Deal?”

  I stroke my dick, loving how her eyes unwillingly travel there. She’s not immune like I thought she once was. I’m athletic and muscular. Tall and hot as fuck. Girls do not turn down Terrence James. Not even little Lacey Henderson.

  “I’ll make you come over and over until you beg me to give you a break.”

  She licks her lips and lets out a resigned huff of air. “Fine. If you make fun of me, I’ll drown you.”

  “You afraid I’m going to make fun of how you moan when you’re impaled on my dick?”

  “I meant my body, asshole.”

  At first I think it’s because she’s petite and not very curvy, but when she starts peeling off her shirt, I realize it’s something else altogether. Silvery scars dot her abdomen. Might be from cigarette burns or some shit. Whatever it’s from, it has me burning with the need to yank her to my chest so I can stroke her hair and kiss the top of her head.

  A primal male part of me craves to claim her as mine and keep her. It scares the fuck out of me because I don’t keep chicks. I fuck them.

  But Lacey?

  She’s a keeper.

  I didn’t keep her, though.

  After we fucked in the river and shared a night in my tent that had me wanting to hang up my playboy ways so I could settle for a cool-ass girl, she left. Never gave me the breakfast she promised either. Simply bailed. I learned not only did she fuck and run, she moved too. Fell off the map. And little did we both know at the time, she was pregnant with my baby.

  A mixture of hurt and anger churns in my gut.

  “Terrence, man,” Jace says, drawing me from my thoughts. “Get Samantha to put a rush on that shit. If he hurt his woman and his stepdaughter, I wouldn’t feel safe if he had my daughter and neither should you.”

  Cold, icy dread swallows me up.

  Zella.

  My sweet little Zella.

  So quiet and sad.

  It’s then, I know.

  Jack is hurting my girl and I have to figure out a way to get her the hell out of there.

  I leave Cal’s bedroom after having a lengthy conversation with Samantha on the phone. She says because there is concern of child abuse, though not proven, she thinks she can push through my request to the judge. Hope is surging through me at the thought of getting her out of Jack’s
disgusting grip.

  Now, I need to find out where Lacey is in Florida.

  Maybe Garrett can loan me some cash to hire a private investigator to hunt her ass down. If she’s hiding from him, she needs to come out. I may be pissed at Lacey for leaving me, but I will work with her to get our daughter back. I can share custody and be friends with Lacey, though the romantic interest in her has long since fizzled.

  “How you feeling, Tee?” I ask my cousin as I sit on the arm of the sofa next to her.

  “Like I told Garrett a thousand times. Fine.” She crosses her arms over her chest, scowling.

  I skim my gaze over to Penny, who’s taken over the recliner now. Her face is expressionless. Walls are erected high now that her daddy is here. Hollis catches me staring at his sister and narrows his eyes at me. Playfully, I flip him off before turning my attention to Garrett.

  “They’re okay?” I ask him.

  He nods. “I checked them both over. Whatever drugs they ingested seem to be gone. I wish, though, you guys would have taken them to the hospital to do a…” He glances over his shoulder at Charlotte and shudders before lowering his voice. “A rape kit.”

  Violence I want to unleash on those sickos at the party comes surging to the surface.

  “Tierra was surrounded by people the whole time and all she did was sleep,” Penny clips out. “And I told you. I wasn’t raped.”

  “But you don’t know that for sure,” Garrett grinds out.

  “Dad,” Penny huffs. “I’d know if there was a dick inside me.”

  Jace lets out a snort. “What every dad wants to think about when regarding his daughter.”

  “Not helping, pet,” Penny grumbles. “Dad, drop it. I’m fine.”

  His lip curls up, reminding me of Penny when she’s grossed out. “Fine. Dropping it now.”

  Penny’s shoulders relax just a bit. To everyone else, she’s this wall of no emotion. But I see my girl. Small tells, but they’re there. She feels just like the rest of us. It may be quieter, but it’s no less intense.

  “I want you both to file a police report, though,” Garrett says in his superior way that makes people fucking listen.