9

I stood at the stove, cooking myself some scrambled eggs for lunch. I had rose early and Ace had driven me to get some much-needed groceries for our apartment. He had left to head to work as I put the food away and cooked for my rumbling stomach.

A quick knock at the door drew my attention away from what I was doing. I walked over and opened the door to find no one there. Confused, I glanced around and noticed the note taped to our door from our landlord.

I pulled it off and read the official notice our of impending eviction unless we paid our rent within the next two weeks.

I angrily clutched the note in my hand as I stormed inside, throwing the door behind me, and charged toward my phone. I quickly dialed Ace number and he picked up within a couple rings.

“Hey baby” he said happily.

“Why are we getting an eviction notice?” I shot out immediately.

The line went silent for a moment. “What are you talking about?” he finally asked slowly.

“An eviction notice for unpaid rent! They just put it on our door! Why are we getting it? You were supposed to be paying it!”

“We ran a little short these past couple months,” he explained in a low voice. “It’s not a big deal.”

“It is a big deal!” I exclaimed as I slammed the paper down on the kitchen counter. “We won’t have a place to live if we get evicted, Ace!”

“I won’t let it get to that,” he chuckled lightly. “I’ll handle it, alright?”

“Where is all of our money going?” I quickly asked. “Why do we not have enough? You work a full-time job and I work two jobs. How can we not have enough money?”

“You also owe Jaxon money which he takes out of your paycheck,” he pointed out.

I shook my head angrily as I clutched the phone. “It’s not that much money and you know it.”

“I know,” he quickly replied.

“So where is all our money going, Ace? To your drugs?”

“We have other bills, Stella,” he shot out as though I was dumb. “We have utilities and all those groceries and damn dates cost money.” 

My fingers clutched my phone painfully tight. “I never asked you take me on all those dates.”

“I’ll pay it, alright? Just chill out.”

My eyes glanced around our small apartment and the fear of losing it rose inside me. “How are we going to come up with two months’ worth of rent in two weeks?”

“I’ll make it happen baby, just chill.”

I picked up extra shifts at Kiki’s and worked a full weekend at Blue Hades and we were still nowhere near two months’ rent, especially when our bank account inexplicitly kept bleeding money that Ace couldn’t explain.

I went to work on Monday for lunch at Kiki’s feeling sorry for myself and pissed off at the entire universe. After busting my butt and scrapping up what I could in tips, I clocked out and headed for the door.

“Hey Stella!” Jessica cheerfully called as she came in while I tried to leave. “Did you get the message I left for you in the backroom?”

“No” I replied, not really interested in overly-bubbly, good girl Jessica. She was definitely not what I needed right now.

“Oh, that’s okay” she smiled broadly at me and I swear sunshine radiated from her smile. “A gentleman came by the restaurant yesterday looking for you. He said you were his cousin.”

I breath caught as I looked at her. My heart pounded nervously in my chest. I had absolutely no relatives living anywhere around here. Who had found me? “What was his name?”

“Alaric” she smiled widely. “He had the most gorgeous hair I have ever seen. It’s even better than mine! I totally had to ask him about his hair routine.” She stroked her long, blonde hair as she spoke. 

My heart fluttered at her words. Alaric had been looking for me? He had my number; why hadn’t he just texted me? “Did he say what he wanted or anything?”

“No,” she said as she dropped her hair and made a face like she was thinking really hard. “It was so hard to concentrate with all that hair,” she giggled. “I hope you don’t find this awfully rude or anything, but does he have a girlfriend?”

“He’s married” I snipped out before turning and leaving. 

I strutted up to the firehouse, excited and curious at what exactly Alaric wanted. I recognized the young man who had been with Alaric at the boxing match standing outside on his phone.

“Hi,” I called out to him as I approached.

He looked up from his phone with a smile, his blue eyes inspecting me. “Can I help you?”

“Is Alaric working today?”

He smirked. “I knew I recognized you. You work at Kiki’s.”

“Yeah,” I nodded my head and extended my hand. “I’m Stella Wyatt.”

“Aaron Rintman” he said a bit too excitedly as he shook my hand. “It’s a pleasure.”

“Are you always this excited to meet people?” I teased playfully. 

“No, I, uh,” he stumbled through his words awkwardly as he dropped his hand. I felt a ping of guilt at making him obviously embarrassed. “Alaric’s up in the gym. Come on, I’ll take you up.” 

Aaron led me into the firehouse and through the maze of hallways to a closed door.

“Here it is,” he smiled a bit nervously as he pointed toward the door. “He’s in here.”

I nodded as he hesitated a moment before turning and leaving. I grabbed the door handle and slowly pushed it open. I stepped inside and closed the door behind me. Rock music blasted in the small room filled with workout equipment. Alaric laid on a bench on his back, lifting a dumbbell with weights up and down.

I walked over to him and, when he lifted the bar, I spoke up.

“I heard you wanted to see me?”

He looked over at me with shock written on his face as he set the weight onto it’s stand and sat up.

“I did,” he replied as that gorgeous smile which made me weak in the knees overtook his face. His dimples were exposed as his eyes danced over me. His hair was pulled up into a man bun, and his shirt was off, exposing his hard chest and body scattered with tattoos. 

“What um … what for?” I asked, trying to remember what we were even talking about.

His smile slowly faded as desire began to take over his face. He stood up and was just inches from me. “A quick fuck.” 

My jaw dropped at his dirty mouth as he smiled in delight at my shock at his words. I stared into his green eyes, knowing I should say no. There was something about him that intrigued me, brought me too close to him. I never got involved with my clients. But I couldn’t find the strength, or really the desire, to say no.

I nodded my head and he immediately bent down, grabbing my butt and lifting me up. My legs straddled him as I lowered my face and kissed him. Desire coursed through my veins like it never had before as I tasted his delicious lips on mine. His mouth opened, inviting me in as he moved toward the wall, bumping my back against it. He dropped my legs as he pinned me against the wall, his hands exploring my body with an urgent need. He grabbed my shirt, pulling it over my head and making quick work of my bra as it fell to the floor. My hands went to his pants, undoing his belt and dropping his pants to the floor as he did the same to mine. 

Once we were both undressed, he put a condom on, and lifted me once again. My legs straddled on either side of him. His arms flexed with his large muscles as he easily held my weight in his arms.

He entered me and my head fell back against the wall as my body burst to life. The overpowering feeling of ecstasy at feeling his large manhood inside me drove me insane. He quickly began thrusting fast and hard. My back slammed into the wall behind me with his carnal pleasure as he growled my name into my ear.

My arms wrapped around his neck, exploring up into his wavy curls as I kissed his neck and cried out his name in unleashed pleasure. I had never in my life had such an enormous response to a man before. Never had I felt this intense pleasure and ecstasy. It was like he unlocked some secret, primal and exploding sensuality deep inside me that I never knew existed. I never wanted it to stop. I wanted him to bask in this pleasure with him forever. I could never get enough of him and what he did to my body.

He found his release as my name fell him his lips laced with his British accent. He breathed heavily as he carefully set my feet back onto the ground. He put his hands on either side of my head on the wall behind me as he caught his breath. 

“You okay?” I smiled happily at him, still coming down from the high of what we had just done.

“Yeah,” he replied softly as he surprisingly leaned forward and kissed me on the lips. It was gentle and sweet, the exact opposite of what he had just done to me. His kiss slowly moved to my cheek and then to my neck. I leaned my head to the side, giving him better access as I softly moaned. My hands wrapped around his hard, tattooed abdomen.

He suddenly pulled back as his eyes locked onto mine. “What happened to your neck?” 

I quickly pulled my hands from his body and reached up to brush my hair back over my neck. “Nothing.”

Anger flashed across his face before he quickly restrained it. “That’s not nothing” he insisted softly.

I quickly verbalized the first excuse I could think of. “I burnt myself with my curling iron.” I added a light laugh to try to make it believable. “Not something I’m really proud of.”

His green eyes narrowed slightly. “There’s more than one mark.”

I blew out a breath as I shook my head. “I did it more than once, okay? I’m kinda clumsy with it.”

His eyes bore into me as though he knew I was lying and was begging me to tell him the truth. It made me nervous and I quickly looked away and ducked beneath his arm. I grabbed my discarded clothes off the ground and began getting dressed as, with relief, I saw him do the same in the corner of my eye.

“Is it the same amount?” he asked, breaking the silence between us. “Three hundred?” 

I looked down at the floor as I ran my fingers through my hair. “Yeah.”

He walked over to some lockers by the wall and dug inside it as I glanced around at the various equipment and pretended not to care he was using me strictly for sex.

He sauntered over to me, still shirtless, and his pants hung low on his waist. I stared at the various tattoos scattered across his body. There were animals and shapes, numbers and names on his arm. A large guitar was on his left forearm. A large rose was on his abdomen, along with a couple birds appearing to fly away from it. He had a heart, along with several musical notes on his chest. A part of me longed to find out what each one meant, and the story behind it.

“Did they hurt?” I asked curiously.

He looked at me in confusion as he held the money out to me. “Did what hurt?” 

I took the money and shoved it into my pocket, not even bothering to count it. “The tattoos.”

He glanced down at them on his chest and arms, as if forgetting they were even there. “No.”

I nodded slowly as I turned to take my leave.

“Do you have any?”

I turned back toward him, thinking it was a silly question as he had just seen me completely nude. “No. I’ve never had anything important enough to permanently put on my body.”

“You don’t want to put your boyfriend’s name on your body?” He grinned as he said it as though he was teasing, but his tone seemed to have a tinge of anger.

“No” I replied. “I think that’s one of the stupidest things you can do.” 

He chuckled. “Is that so?”

I nodded as he pulled the tie from his hair and it fell down around his face. He threw his head down before flipping it backup and running his fingers through his hair, shaking it out.

“Jessica, the girl you talked to at the restaurant, was quite impressed with your hair.” I laughed lightly as I basted in the moment of standing here, with this amazingly handsome man, and just having a conversation with him.

His smile lit up his face as his dimples punctured his face. “And what do you think of it?”

I shrugged. “Its okay, I guess.”

“You guess?” he laughed goodheartedly.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m insanely jealous of your hair. No girl ever is lucky enough to have hair like that. How long have you been growing it out?”

He thought for a second. “Almost a year now, I think. It started out as a bet between me and a buddy. Who could not cut their hair the longest.”

“I’m guessing you won?”

He nodded as he laughed. “Yeah, I did.”

A silence fell between us and the feeling that I was just a prostitute wasting his time began to creep into my brain. He wasn’t paying for conversation; he was paying for sex. The sex was done, which meant our interaction should be done.

“I should go,” I vocalized my feelings as I glanced at the door.

“Alright” he replied, neither confirming or denying my feelings. “I hope it was alright to stop by Kiki’s to see you.”

“Yeah,” I confirmed too quickly and heat rose to my cheeks. I quickly tried to follow it up to sound more casual. “It was fine. Stop by anytime. Or don’t. Whatever.” 

His green eyes studied me silently as he nodded slowly. “Or whatever then.”

“Yeah,” I drew out slowly as I turned toward the door. “That too.”

I mentally slapped my hand against my forehead at my awkwardness as I rushed out the door like a dog with his tail between his legs.