9. Rory

CHAPTER 9

RORY

S aturday afternoon stretched on and on. I wasn’t even supposed to be working that day, which made the shift feel even longer. I’d taken my manager's offer to come in that weekend for overtime because being at the house was starting to depress me. Nic had been griping at me for days now, and Cornelius hadn’t stopped sulking about a job interview that went poorly. The only one I could even tolerate being around these days was Matt, but he was so busy getting ready for summer school classes that I knew I wouldn’t see much of him this weekend.

Throwing myself into work was the only distraction I could think of, but after another long day on the docks, I was ready to get the fuck out of there. I clocked out the second I could and changed out of my fishy clothes.

In the parking lot, I ran into Jackson, who was eagerly hurrying to his car.

“Hey, Rory!” he said. “Just the man I wanted to see. I’m meeting Jen at Smart Choice! You want to join us?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot you said you were going to give Jen another chance to chat up the bartender.” I laughed. “That does sound like a tempting offer…”

“Then give in,” he said, waving me over to his car. “I’ll even offer to drive us over there. You can leave your car here and catch a rideshare home or something.”

I hesitated for a second but then thought about the alternative. If I didn’t go with Jackson to the bar, I would simply end up going back to the house and sitting on the couch drinking beer, hoping Nic wasn’t going to come pick a fight with me for no reason. No, thank you.

“Yeah, alright,” I said. “That actually does sound kind of fun. And who can pass up an offer for a ride to the bar?”

“Great! Let’s do it!” He grinned, and I got into his car. He turned the country music up loud, and despite my general disdain for contemporary country, I actually got into it. It was another beautiful evening at Solara Bay and I had three days off in a row coming up. It was like a mini-vacation, and I was determined to enjoy every minute of it. My only regret was that I hadn’t been able to shower before heading to the bar. I tucked my nose into my shirt as we came to a stop in front of Smart Choice and breathed in with a grimace.

“Don’t worry, dude, I’ve gotcha,” Jackson said. He reached into his glove compartment and took out a bottle of cologne. “I keep this in here just in case. You never want to show up to meet a girl smelling like fish.” He handed it to me. “It’s strong, so go easy.”

“Thanks, man.” I stepped out of the car and sprayed myself a few times, then handed it to him to do the same. He tossed the bottle onto his seat and shut the door, didn’t even bother locking it. Nobody broke into cars in Solara Bay. And if they were going to, they wouldn’t bother with Jackson’s beat-up, twenty-year-old sedan. They would go for one of the fancy cars the rich tourists drove.

Inside, the bar was just starting to fill up, but there were a couple of open stools near the end of the row that Jackson and I snagged.

“Do you want to try and find a booth?” I asked. “So your friend will have a place to sit?”

“That’s okay. Jen’s running a little late,” he said, looking at his phone. “She told me to order a beer for her, though. We can move if we have to once she gets here.”

It was Al who ended up taking our order, and I did my best to hide my disappointment. He opened a couple of beer bottles and slid them over to us, then started a tab on Jackson’s card. “First round is on me,” the kid said. “I got a promotion today.”

“Hey, congrats,” I said, clapping him on the back. “You’ve earned it with all the weight you’ve been pulling lately.” Even though he only started a month ago, they had been working Jackson to the bone. Probably because he was one of the few people strong enough to do some of the rougher jobs on the boat. “How much did they bump you up?”

“Just 25 cents more an hour, but I’ll take it. Anything helps when you’re saving up for college.”

I smiled and sipped my beer. Al went to go help some other patrons, and I turned around on my stool to scan the room. Jackson watched me out of the corner of his eye, but I didn’t care if he knew what I was up to. When I glanced his way, he laughed.

“I haven’t seen her yet either,” he said. “And she’s hard to miss, so something tells me she’s not working tonight.”

“She has to be,” I said. “It’s way too busy for just Al to be manning the bar.”

“Maybe she’s on a break then.” He sipped from his bottle. “Maybe I’ll text Jen and say that I don’t see her. I have a feeling Jen isn’t actually running late. She’s just afraid to come out tonight because she knows I’m going to push her to talk to the bartender.”

“Speaking of, is it rude if I shoot my shot with her before your friend gets here?”

“Not at all,” Jackson said. “Chances are Jen’s not going to do anything about her crush. Tonight or ever.”

“In that case.” I spotted the woman coming out of the bathroom and elbowing her way back to the bar. I tucked my chin into my chest when she walked by so she wouldn’t notice and waited until she was done putting her apron back on around her waist to say anything.

“First Saturday night on the job. You doing okay so far, or do you want me to jump over the counter and help out?”

She looked up from the glass she was polishing and eyed me with noticeable annoyance, even though I literally had only said one thing. “Oh. It’s you.”

“In the flesh.”

“I see Al has already gotten you a drink, so is there something else you need, or can I get back to work?”

I looked down the length of the bar but didn’t see anyone who was trying to get her attention. “Am I really keeping you from your work?”

“Yup. Like you said, it’s a Saturday night at a popular bar. There’s always something I could be doing.”

“I’m Jackson, by the way.” Jackson stuck his hand out, but she ignored it. “I’m a friend of Rory’s from work. You might remember me from the other night.”

“You were part of his group?”

“No, I wish,” he said with a laugh. “I’m not nearly cool enough to run around with Rory and his gang. Not a chance.” He grinned at me.

“Hey, Jackson,” I said under my breath. “If this is your attempt at being a wingman, I don’t need the help.”

He smirked. “You sure?”

I gave him a light shove on the shoulder. “Go wait for your friend outside. I’ll save your seat.”

He did as I asked, just like I knew he would, sliding off the stool with no argument. The bartender watched him leave.

“You’ve got him trained pretty well.”

“He’s a nice kid, if not a little naive.” I sipped my beer. “Now, where were we? Ah, yes, that’s right. I was about to ask for your name, and you were about to tell me what it was—and maybe tell me some other interesting fact about you. Or two or three.”

“I can’t, really. I’m busy.”

She wouldn’t even look me in the eye when she spoke, and I knew I was seconds away from striking out again. I drank nearly half my beer in one sip and tried to come up with a new approach. All of a sudden, the door to the bar slammed shut, and she jumped and looked over with a scared expression.

“Woah, it’s okay,” I said. “That was just Jackson. Sometimes he doesn’t know his own strength. He slams doors at work all the time.”

Only the woman didn’t say anything to me. She was clutching her chest and breathing in and out deeply.

“Are you okay?” I stood up and leaned over the bar.

“Yeah, I just—I need some air.”

She walked out from behind the counter and practically ran to the back door. I left my beer behind and chased after her. Outside in the alley behind the building, I found her leaning against the brick wall and bracing herself on her knees.

“Hey, it’s alright,” I said in a soft voice. “Everything’s okay. Really, there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“I’m not afraid,” she spat bitterly.

“You could’ve fooled me.” I went to her side and put a tentative hand on her back. She flinched but didn’t shrug me off. “Look, I realize you don’t like me. That’s fine. But I know a panic attack when I see one, and I think it’s best that I stay out here until you can regulate your breathing a little better. If you start hyperventilating for real, things can go south very quick.”

She said nothing at first. Just continued to draw air in and let it out in heavy gasps. After a while, however, everything calmed down, and she breathed more normally.

“How are you feeling? Better?”

She nodded.

“Do you want to talk about what happened?” I asked. “Whatever it is, I swear I won’t judge. I know I probably don’t seem like the type, but I actually know a lot about PTSD. Two of the guys I work with at the fishery were in the military and have talked to me about it. Plus, my friend Cornelius, he—well, let’s just say he’s someone I’ve had to talk down off a ledge once or twice.”

“I haven’t—” She cleared her throat. “I haven’t had a panic attack like that in a long time.”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed about.”

“I’m not ashamed.” She stood up straight and rested her head back on the wall behind us. “I just don’t know what triggered it. That loud sound shouldn’t have been enough to spook me.”

“Have you been particularly stressed lately?” I asked. “Have you been sleeping well?”

She stared at me for a few seconds, saying nothing, but I knew the answer to my question just from the look in her eye.

“I see. Those things can have a pretty strong effect on someone who already suffers from anxiety. So let me ask again, do you feel like talking about it?”

“No,” she said, suddenly reaching out and grabbing a fistful of my shirt and pulling me in close. “Now that you mention it, I don’t want to talk about anything. I just want to do this.”

She put her lips against mine, and just like that, the fire was lit.

Everything happened so fast that I didn’t have time to think. Not that it would have mattered anyway since all the blood left my brain within seconds and settled in another part of my body. I was alert and growing with passion from the moment I breathed in the smell of her.

She pushed me against the cold brick wall and kissed me with a ferocity that ignited something deep within me. A kind of desire I’d never felt before. I wrapped my hands around her waist and lifted her off the ground, moving to the other side of the alley so that she was the one pinned instead of me. She weighed practically nothing, and I pushed her against the wall as she moaned with delight and bit my bottom lip playfully.

I held her carefully as she tore the shirt from her own back, exposing her breasts, which were barely covered by the thin fabric of a bralette. Her chest heaved as I began to run my tongue down the length of her collarbone. I sucked on her nipple through the fabric, and her sounds became louder, more desperate. She grabbed a fistful of my hair and cried out.

“More! More!”

I happily obliged, putting her back down on her feet and undoing her pants. They were tight, but I managed to reach my hand into the waistband and explore more of her body. I found the little bead of pleasure at her apex and began to work my magic, pressing the pads of my fingers against her with a steady rhythm. Our lips met, and she stole my breath. Her soft skin was moist when I pushed my fingers inside of her. Her body stiffened, and she wrapped her tongue around mine before throwing her head back, gasping as I increased the pressure, speeding up.

The straps of her bra slid down her shoulders, and her breasts began to spill out. Sweat dripped down her neck and settled in the little crevice between them, and I lapped it up like it was the only water in a dry, desolate desert.

She pulled me closer, forcing my fingers even deeper inside of her, and then she pushed back frantically and started struggling with my belt. I helped her, and soon enough, my throbbing cock was out, and she was running her soft palm up and down its length. I grabbed the side of her face and kissed her again, and she gently stroked me until my desire was so fiery hot that I worried it would burn through the orgasm too quickly—before I even got a chance to experience what it was like to be inside her.

I reached down and grabbed her hands, then brought them up over her head and pinned her wrists against the brick. She gasped and followed my lead. She left her hands where they were even after I removed mine. I ripped her pants down the rest of the way and took a moment to breathe in the intoxicating scent that came from where I so desperately wanted to be. The wolf inside me growled with anticipation, but luckily, the sound that I made was more human than anything else. She kicked her bottom layers off to the side, and as I stood back up, I brought one of her legs with me.

She was flexible and rested her ankle on my shoulder with ease, and I closed the gap between us. I lifted her off the ground slightly and entered her. She dug her nails into my back as I plunged inside, pushing my thick member as far as it would go.

“Yes,” she cried out. “Yes!”

She braced herself against the wall, and I drilled into her. Her nipples were now poking out from underneath the bra that was barely holding on, and the harder my thrusts, the more her breasts heaved. She brought me back in for another long kiss, and I felt her core tense around me.

Her eyes rolled back as she climaxed, giving me a peek at that beautiful neck of hers. There was a freckle right in the middle, and the skin was so taut and sleek with sweat that I wanted to taste it. Before I could stop myself, I put my mouth just underneath her jawline and nibbled there. The moan she let out sent a shudder throughout my entire body, and I finished inside of her just as the two of us both drew blood. She, from digging her nails even harder into my shoulder, and me from catching her skin on one of my sharper canines.

We were both panting and when I pulled away, she used her thumb to gently wipe her blood from my lips. Then she showed me the drip of red on her fingernails before slipping those digits into her mouth and licking them in a way that made me want to start all over again.

I sighed and let my head come to rest on her upper chest. She laughed softly and ran her fingers through my hair. Then she grabbed a fistful and gently pulled me off of her.

“What just?—”

“Shh,” she said. “Don’t ruin this by saying anything.” She kissed me once more, then nudged me backward so that we could detangle ourselves. She put her clothes back on, but I was still a little too stupefied to do the same.

“I didn’t?—”

“Me neither.”

“But—”

“It’s fine,” she said. “No need to explain what just happened. But thanks for the distraction.” She headed for the door. “I’ll see you around.”

Then, without so much as telling me her name or explaining why she’d just jumped my bones in the back alley in the middle of her shift, the woman walked back inside and was gone. I stood there for a moment or two longer, my body still on fire from the memory of hers. When I heard a crashing sound one block down, I snapped back to reality and collected myself. Pants buckled and heart racing, I went back inside the bar as well.