Carmen Jenner - Welcome to Sugartown

He takes a few steps back toward his bike and then straddles it, his gaze never once leaving mine. “You have a curfew?”

“I’m nineteen, Elijah. Of course I don’t have a curfew.”

“Your dad’s kind of a badass. I wanna make sure he’s not going to turn my balls into pumpkins if I don’t have you home before midnight.”

I slip onto the bike behind him, wrap my arms around his waist and hold on—and yeah, I may have trailed my fingers around a little slower and softer than was necessary. He flinches a little, his shoulders tensing, and the hard muscles of his stomach bunching beneath my fingers before he settles into the seat and my arms.

“Besides, he scares the shit out of me,” Elijah adds.

“Aw, he’ll be so proud when I tell him.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” He puts on his helmet and slides on a pair of black wayfarers with clear lenses and yells, “Hang on” before careening out of the parking lot at breakneck speed. I wrap my arms tighter around him, squeeze my thighs tighter against his. I see his head shift down to glance at my thighs and he swerves a little. I tuck my head in away from the wind, lay my cheek against his back and breathe in the smell of leather and Elijah.

Dropping Ana back at her house that night felt like one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I know, I know, that’s a gross pussy-ass exaggeration, especially for someone like me, but it was damn hard returning her to her dad’s house when all I wanted was to take her back to my motel, throw her on the bed and fuck her brains out.

You don’t do that with girls like Ana, though. You take girls like Ana out to fancy restaurants, or to your kid sister’s birthday party or home to meet your mum, but since I don’t do fancy and have no family left to speak of, I drove around the outskirts of town for a little while before taking her home, because Ana is one girl I didn’t want to screw over. Maybe the first girl.

Either way, the press of her thighs against mine drove me crazy. All I could think about was how they’d feel wrapped around my hips as I drove myself inside her. So instead, I drove her home before the temptation proved too much for me. As much as I wanted her, I knew this was a girl I’d have to go easy with before I choked and fucked everything up.

“Do you want to come in?” she’d asked with a coy smile.

Fuck. So not the question to ask a man who’s fantasising about being balls deep inside you.

“You have no idea,” I’d whispered beneath the revving throttle. “Some other time, maybe.”

“Oh.” Did she look disappointed? “Well, thanks for the drink, and for that thing you did with Scott.”

“Ana, that really wasn’t for his benefit.” I lean forward. “I’ve been wanting to lay you out before me and kiss every inch of that fucking beautiful body since I first laid eyes on you in your parents’ pie shop.”

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing the pub doesn’t have beds, or I’d be in trouble.”

“Why limit yourself to a bed, when any flat surface is fair game?” I’d winked and then gunned it down the gravel alleyway before she could lure me inside.

Now, a whole day later, as I scour the local supermarket for a decently priced microwave meal, I think of a hundred other ways that I should have said goodnight to Ana. My mind also constructs a hundred other scenarios where I’ve taken her back to my motel room and made good on that promise. I’m deciding between two different microwave meals, wondering which will be less likely to taste like dog food, when someone rams me with their trolley from behind.

“Ah! Fu—” I spin around to face a very chagrined Sam. “—uuuuudge ‘n’ ice cream!”

I squeeze my eyes tightly shut and take a few sharp shallow breaths to keep from Hulking out at hot waitress’s little brother. “Hey Buddy, how’s it goin’?”

I bump my knuckles against his tiny fist and he tilts his chin up at me before breaking out into a goofy smile.

“Aww, thorry dude, I didnth thee you there.”

“Oh my god, Sammy you didn’t hit someone else, did you?” asked a panicked disembodied voice from an aisle over.

“Ana Cabana, Elijath’s here! And my trolley cut off his leg and totally made him bleed everywhere.”

My ankle is bleeding, though not enough to warrant a hospital visit, but it’d been enough to make me drop the items in my hands. The carton of milk I’d been holding has busted open and spilled all over the floor.

Ana comes bolting around the corner, skidding to a halt in front of me, though not fast enough to avoid slipping through the spilled milk. Her legs go out from beneath her and we collide and go down in a tangle of limbs. The breath rushes out of my lungs as I take the brunt of our fall.

She leans back to see my face and there’s the most beautiful pink blush in her cheeks. “I’m so sorry, are you okay?”

“You Belles pack a punch, you know that?” I feel my lips tug up at the corners.

Ana laughs. “Just be thankful it wasn’t my dad that ran into you.”

“Well, I can tell you right now, you wouldn’t have your hands on my arse like you do my daughter’s.” Bob appears before us as if he’s been summoned. Like the mere mention of his name calls him up out of the darkness like that dude from Harry Potter. I follow the line of his gaze and, whaddya you know, my hands are on Ana’s arse, holding her in position as she’s splayed on top of me.

“What the fuck, Ana?”

Sam laughs and starts jumping up and down in the milk puddle singing, “Daddy thswore! Daddy thswore!”

Ana jumps to her feet and reaches out a hand to help me up. I take it, but only because I like the feel of her tiny hand engulfed in mine.

“Son?” Bob looks like he’s going to have a stroke right there in the middle of the grocery store.

“Dad …” Ana warns.

“I thought I made myself clear?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Wait, what do you mean you made yourself clear?” Ana glances between the two of us. At least I think she does. My mind is too focused on the 170-plus kg of pissed off dad in front of me to lay eyes on her and know for sure. “Dad?”

“Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad?” Sam parrots over and over again.

“That’s enough, Sammy!” Bob and Ana yell above him.

“Oh my god. You totally warned him off of me, didn’t you?” I do risk a glance at her this time. Her gaze is cutting and her jaw is set. She’s incredibly hot and also kinda scary, not gonna lie. Bob at least has the decency to look sheepish.

“Maybe I should just let you guys—”

She whirls on me and scary takes on a whole new meaning. “Elijah, do not move a muscle.”

I hold my hands up in surrender and thank Christ she turns her fury back onto her old man. “I can’t believe you are still trying to pull this crap.”

“Elijah and I had an understanding—”

“No. Just no! I am nineteen-years-old, Dad. You do not get to tell me who I can and can’t date. And you especially don’t get to ward off the only guy in town who might be interested.” She accentuates each word which a finger jab to his chest and his big biker face winces with each poke of her bony little finger.

“In fact …” She pivots toward me and I flinch, thinking she’s about to start laying into me too, but the next thing I know she’s smashing her lips against mine and shoving her tongue down my throat as her soft body moulds into my hard one. I’m so startled that at first I don’t respond, then she makes this faint little breathy moaning sound and suddenly my hands are on her arse again like it’s a reflex.

“Hands, Kid,” Bob growls.

I raise my hands in a “look, no touching” kind of gesture and pull away a little, but it’s clear that Ana’s not done with me yet. She pushes her glorious rack even closer against me and I can’t help but fist my hands in her hair.

“Daddy, why ith Ana thucking on Elijath’s face?”

“I’m asking myself the same thing, Kid,” I hear Bob mumble. Then a little louder, “Alright, break it up you two. You’ve proved your point.”

Ana pulls away and that blush I’d witnessed earlier is now an all-out glow. She smiles, a little sheepish, but it’s tinged with only a hint of embarrassment and it seems like she’s pretty proud of herself. “Sorry, that’s twice now I’ve used you to prove a point.”

“I’m not complaining.”

“Hey, we’re having a BBQ at the house tonight, you should come.”

“Ah, I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”

“Gah! This is because of him isn’t it? Dad tell Elijah he’s welcome to come to the BBQ tonight.”

“Yes, Elijah, why not come and eat my food, drink my beer and manhandle my daughter some more?”

“Dad!” She shoots him a stern look before smiling up at me. “You should come. Holly will be there.”

“Yeah.” I scratch the back of my neck. “That’s not really a selling point.”

“Yeah, she does get kinda intense.”

“Elijah, ith you come to the BBQ tonight, I’ll totally thow you my collection of mathbox carths.” The kid’s eyes are so round with excitement, I couldn’t bear to let him down. Even though it may mean Bob and his buddies have a chance to kick my arse for manhandling his daughter, I still can’t say no to the little guy. Kids always hit me where it hurts. And before you start sprouting some sensitive new age guy bullshit, being a sucker for kids doesn’t make me a pussy.

Does it?

“Well when you put it like that, heck yeah, I’m gonna be there. That’d be awesome, little man.”

“Cool.”

“So you’ll really come?” Ana asks as she snags her bottom lip between her teeth and, just like I did the night before, I have this crazy urge to run my thumb over it and then kiss her till she’s dizzy. Probably not the wisest move with her old man staring daggers in my direction.