Kristen Ashley - Rock Chick

I did the only thing I could do.

I ran to him, one step, two, three, then I threw myself at him bodily. Jumping up, my arms went around his neck, my legs went around his hips, I bent my head, put my mouth to his and I kissed him.

I took him off guard, which was good. He went back on a foot, his hands went to my ass holding me to him. He resisted for, like, a second, then he kissed me back, hot, deep, lots of tongue, full of relief and something else.

Something that felt like promise.

It was the best kiss I’d ever had.

Two mornings after my third (and hopefully last) kidnapping, I slid back into bed, pulled the covers up to my chin and stared at the ceiling.

After a couple of minutes, Lee walked in carrying two cups of coffee. He put one on the nightstand and then stood beside the bed, looking down at me, sipping from his cup.

I ignored the coffee.

This heralded a momentous occasion. It was the first time I’d ever ignored a cup of coffee first thing in the morning.

“Well, the baby scare is over,” I told the ceiling, not sure if I was happy or sad my monthly visitor had showed up. Then I was not sure whether I should be happy or sad about the fact that I didn’t know if I was happy or sad. This was too confusing so I stopped thinking altogether.

The bed moved when Lee sat next to me. He leaned down, his handsome face filled my vision, his warm eyes melty-chocolate and his lips brushed against mine.

His head moved away an inch. “We have time.”

I stared at him a beat.

He was right.

We did.

I smiled.

To sum up:

First, Stevie was apoplectic about the state of the yard after bits of burning debris fell on it. He didn’t talk to me for a week. He was flying a lot during that time so maybe he wasn’t holding that much of a grudge and just didn’t have time to forgive me (I was going with that thought).

Second, Tex was a coffee hit. We were so busy, I had to do a quick hire. Her name was Jet, which I thought was a kickass, rock ‘n’ roll name but she wasn’t exactly kickass and

rock ‘n’ roll. She was quiet, she was sweet, she was pretty, she made a mean latte and the best part about her was, I could tell, hell, everyone could tell, she had a secret.

Third, Hank told me The Kevster was going to be okay. It was his first offense so he was likely to get community service. Rosie wouldn’t fare so well, he’d probably get a jail sentence. He announced he was seriously moving to San Salvador after he got out. It wasn’t a joke or a drama. He was done with coffee, done with pot and wanted to be far, far away from Denver. I didn’t blame him, Denver had not been good to him (even if it was all his fault) but I would miss him.

Fourth, Terry Wilcox and his goons disappeared.

Poof.

Gone.

Lee explained some of this to me.

See, Marcus had a meet with the mob in New York City with the goal of explaining his, shall we say, frustration, at Wilcox’s antics. Not only with the diamonds but also with cutting into Marcus’s action. Wilcox’s Uncle Gino was already fed up with his nephew, fed up with the constant clean up and fed up with the headache. It didn’t take much for Marcus to talk Gino into intervening. It helped when Lee gave Gino a call and told him that Wilcox was not only pestering his girlfriend but also, that girlfriend was a cop’s daughter. Gino had enough headaches, he didn’t need the Denver Police Department getting interested. Gino decided to take care of Wilcox once and for all. This might have meant that Wilcox took that long vacation he planned. It also might have meant he was fish food.

I tried not to think about it. I really didn’t like Terry Wilcox but I didn’t want him dead.

Incarcerated. Yes.

Out of my life. Absolutely.

Dead seemed kind of harsh, even for scary, creepy, icky Wilcox.

As for Wilcox’s goons, Gary, Teddy, The Moron and the Steroid Sidekicks, Lee told me they would no longer be a problem. I got the impression that this had to do with Lee and his badass army “having fun”, as Vance put it, but I tried not to think about that either.

Last, no one ever found out that Eddie shot someone on my behalf, such was the clean sweep of Uncle Gino.

Eddie and Lee had issues about this. Lee had told Darius that he and Marcus were working together to take care of Wilcox, once and for all. Eddie was kept out of this deal. Eddie might be a maverick cop but he still liked to work within the bounds of the law (when it suited him). Stepping aside for a mob clean up was something he frowned on. With a bit of naked gratitude as incentive, Lee told me that Eddie and Lee had a chat, with Darius playing intermediary. They worked it out but I could tell, it took a bit of effort.

That was it.

All that drama and then, in one day, it was over.

It was a few weeks after the final showdown and life had gone back to normal. Normal, that was, with Lee coming home to sleep in my bed every night which was a new, happy normal that I really, really liked.

Lee was a good roommate, he brought me coffee in the morning, he wasn’t in my hair all the time and he called to tell me when he was going to be late.

There were drawbacks, of course.

He threw the towel in the sink when he was done with it and thought that the words “floor” and “closet” where synonymous but I was quietly working through these issues.

A girl could get through these things knowing that sometime during the night (or late morning, depending) the boy she’d loved since she was five was going to slide in bed beside her.

That, and there was also the fact that Judy, the housekeeper, also came with Lee moving in.

Ally and I were lying out in the sun on my balcony with melting spiced rum and diets, the phone and an egg timer when we heard, “Yoo hoo!”

I lifted my torso up, looked through the balcony railing and down and saw Tod standing on the decking at the end of their yard.

“Hey,” I called.

“Drag Duty, Saturday night. You up for it?” Tod called back, shielding his eyes with his hand, Chowleena sitting by his feet.

“Sure.”

“Stevie’s on a flight that night, Ally, you doin’ back up?” Tod yelled.

“Um-hum,” Ally mumbled loudly. She was lying on her stomach and her face was smushed into the lounge chair.

“What time?” I asked.

Tod paused, then said, “Girlie, aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What?”

Tod shook his head. “You’re living with Hunk-A-Licous now, you might want to ask him if he has plans for Saturday night.”

Ally’s eyes opened and trained on me.

Shit.

I was really not good at this relationship stuff.

“Call Lee,” Tod advised, “then come over and let me know.”

“Gotcha,” I shouted and settled in, reaching for the phone and hearing Chowleena’s nails tapping on the bricks as she and Tod walked back into the house.

I started to punch in Lee’s cell number.

“I’m still pissed you’re not pregnant,” Ally said into the lounge chair.

“For goodness sake, why?” I asked.

“I’m never gonna get a niece named after me.”

I hesitated before hitting the call button. “Ally, I hate to break this to you but it’s likely genetically impossible for me to have a girl. I don’t think Lee’s boys will allow the female chromosome to dominate.”

“You can name a boy ‘Ally’,” she tried.

“I’m not naming a boy ‘Ally’. He’ll get the shit knocked out of him in school.”

“Muhammad Ali didn’t get the shit knocked out of him, he knocked the shit out of everyone else.”

“Muhammad Ali was born with the name Cassius Clay. Cassius Clay is a kickass name. No one would fuck with a Cassius Clay.”

“No one would fuck with Muhammad Ali either.”

I couldn’t debate that point.

I gave up and hit the call button.

Lee answered after the first ring. “Yeah?”

I got a thrill down my spine at Lee’s voice saying that one word. I wondered when that would stop happening and I hoped the answer was “never”.

“Hey. Do we have plans Saturday night?” I asked.

“I thought I’d take you to Barolo Grill.”

“Yippee!” I cried.

Shit.

Did I say that out loud?

I snapped my mouth shut.

Silence on the phone.

“Lee?”

“Gorgeous, I know you don’t like it when I say this but you’re incredibly cute.”

That gave me a thrill down my spine too.

I’d never, in a million years, admit that to Lee.

“Whatever,” I said instead. “Anyway, Tod’s asked me to do Drag Duty.”

Lee, who was good at this relationship stuff, said immediately, “I’ll tell Dawn to make it an early reservation.”

Hee hee.

Lee was going to get Dawn to make our dinner reservations.

At the beautiful, fabulous, romantic Barolo Grill.

I loved that and I didn’t even care, not one bit, what that said about me.

“That sounds good,” I said and I couldn’t help it, I sounded happy. This was maybe because I was happy.

“Is that it?” Lee asked.

“Yes, no, yes,” I answered, because I didn’t want it to be.

Shit.

“Which is it?”

I lost my courage. “It’s no. Later.”

“Later.”

Before I heard the disconnect, quickly, I pulled myself together and told myself that even Rock Chicks could fall in love.