The Outliers: (The Outskirts Duet Book 2) Read online

  He pushed himself inside of me with one long thrust that made me gasp, filling me with pleasure, while filling my heart with love.

  I adjusted around his size, my inner muscles squeezed around him. Finn groaned, the sound making me squeeze him again and again until the pleasure was almost painful. Until there were tears in my eyes and we were the only two people existing on earth.

  He held my hands above my head and didn’t continue until I was looking him in the eye. “I love you, Say.”

  “I love you,” I replied, looking deeply into his eyes. The feeling between us, the connection we shared, added another log to the fire and our pleasure increased, reaching heights I didn’t think possible.

  A tear fell from the corner of my eye. It was all too much.

  It wasn’t enough.

  Finn kissed the tear away and began a slow and steady rhythm that had me lifting my hips to meet his thrust for thrust. We somehow flipped from wild sex to passionate love.

  “I’m going to make you come now,” He said on a low groan. He reached around me to lift me up so he could hit an angle that had me seeing stars with each languid thrust.

  “Please,” I begged, feeling so close to the edge I was practically living on it.

  “Fuck. I feel you. I know you’re almost there. Damn you’re so tight around me.” He thrust in harder. Repeatedly he pushed in and out until his movements became frenzied and we were awash in sensations and feelings.

  I couldn’t keep track of where he was touching or where our lips were.

  I felt him everywhere.

  My body.

  My heart.

  My soul.

  The muscles in my lower stomach tightened and he reached under my tank top brushing his thumb over my straining nipple which sent a shockwave of pleasure to my core. “I’m I’m…” I couldn’t finish my sentence because I was already too far gone. I came in a burst of blinding white light as the immense pleasure exploded within me.

  “Holy shit.” Finn pushed inside of me one last time until I felt him expand within me, releasing his warmth with a pulse that caused me to shudder one last time as the last of the intense waves washed through me.

  The depth of feeling wasn’t like it had been the first time in the library. I didn’t know how or why pleasure like this existed but all I knew was that Finn had given it to me, and so much more.

  A few months later, my father walked me down a makeshift aisle in a field full of sunflowers. During the last moments of daylight, in the exact spot where my parents were married, I held our newborn baby girl between us while Finn and I vowed to always love one another.

  Fiercely. Possessively. Crazily.

  Always.

  The End

  Epilogue

  Sawyer

  When we pulled up to Gary’s Garage I furrowed my brow and turned to Finn. “I’m confused. Why are we here?”

  “Come on,” Finn said, hopping down from the truck.

  I followed him with Sunny, our three-month-old daughter, as he bypassed the opened garage bay through the field to the back of the small building. I was too busy trying not to lose my footing on the uneven earth that I didn’t see what was in front of me until I crashed into Finn’s back.

  “What do you think?” he asked, stepping to the side.

  My mouth fell open and in inhaled on a sharp breath, covering my mouth in disbelief. “It’s….” I took a few tentative steps forward, not believing what I was seeing until I was able to run my hand over the freshly painted side of my mother’s rusty old truck except now she was anything but rusty.

  “She runs. Really well actually. Got a lot of new guts but she’s still the same deep down.”

  “But didn’t Gary said she wasn’t worth fixing?” I asked, peeking into the window to take a closer look at the new powder blue leather bench seat and matching steering wheel. Everything about it was new and clean.

  “Gary didn’t see the way you looked at it like it was a puppy that had to be put down,” Finn answered.

  My heart warmed at the gesture but I didn’t get a chance to say thank you before Finn tugged me further into the alleyway where I hadn’t even noticed what was hitched to the truck.

  My camper.

  “Blue!” I gasped.

  “She’s got a lot of life left in her yet,” Finn said, which was exactly what I’d always thought but was told it wasn’t worth the parts.

  “Thank you,” I breathed, wrapping my arms around Finn. “You made them live again. Thank you.”

  “Just like you made me live again,” he said, lightly pinching my chin and placing a chaste kiss on my forehead. I closed my eyes and leaned into his lips, breathing in his fresh woodsy scent. “Now come on, we’ve got a lot of road to cover.” He rounded the camper and opened the passenger door, making a sweeping gesture for me to get inside.

  “We’re going in this?” I asked, still not believing that I had them back.

  “We sure are. Gotta test them out on the road, don’t we? Let’s go show off that grandbaby to my parents. Everything is already packed. Now let’s go, Miss. Your chariot awaits.”

  I’d never been so happy. I’d never had so much family either.

  I placed Sunny in the car seat Finn had already installed and buckled her in. When he started the engine, I squealed with delight and ran my hands over the dashboard. It was still the same truck and camper, but they had been made new again.

  Rescued from ruin—reborn into a new life they were always meant to live.

  Just like me. Just like Finn.

  Just a couple of outliers.

  Bonus Scene

  Critter

  Frankly, I’d waited to god damned long to have Richard in this position to be turning him over to the authorities. He’d be meeting an authority all right, but I’m positive the one he’ll be seeing is located a lot further south than The Outskirts Police station.

  “You know, as a kid I woke up on Christmas morning with a butterfly feeling in my stomach. Excitement over what present I might have gotten. What might be waiting there for me under the tree.” I leaned against the tree that was to be Richard’s final resting place and looked down at him. “I’m kinda feeling that way right now.”

  He struggled against his restraints. “Oh, come on. No need to struggle. I was an Eagle Scout and served three tours with the ole red white and blue. Ain’t no way you’re getting yourself out of those knots.”

  Richard yelled into the cloth gag I’d shoved in his mouth. “Don’t even worry, Richard. I’m not gonna kill ya.” I lit a cigar and tucked the lighter back into my shirt pocket. “Promised the Mrs. I wouldn’t, and unlike you, I keep my promises. Also, unlike you, she was always my wife. Never yours. Same goes for my daughter.”

  Richard bucked again, cursing up a muffled storm. I chuckled. “Didn’t know that did ya? Yeah, we were married. Legally, unlike that bullshit voodoo wedding ya’ll have over there up in the crazy town you pass off as a church.”

  I took a deep breath through my nose. “You smell that? Don’t you love that swamp air? That Sulphur smell after a good hurricane? It’s like the world is cleansing itself of all of the dead things it doesn’t need anymore.” I looked down to Richard whose eyes were bugging out of his skill. I ruffled his hair. “See where I’m going with this?”

  I was kind of disappointed this all had to come to an end. I was enjoying myself too much. But I couldn’t stay. I had to get back to Caroline. To my family.

  “This feels good. Satisfying. So satisfying in fact, I felt the need for a pre revenge cigarette. But since I didn’t have one and didn’t smoke ‘em, this cigar will have to do.”

  A boat approached in the distance. Slowly quietly. No lights.

  Showtime.

  I crouched down in front of Richard. “You took my wife and daughter and didn’t even have the decency as a man to give them a good life. You are as low as they come. Any last words?”

  I pulled out his gag.

  “You’ll go to
hell for this,” Richard seethed.

  I shoved the gag back in his mouth. I stood up and took a puff of my cigar. I shrugged as the boat grew closer.

  “Then I guess I’ll see you there.” I patted Richard on the shoulder. “Save me a seat on the bus.” I smiled and set my cigar in my mouth. “And buy me a fan would ya? I hear it’s hot as fuck down there.”

  Richard’s eyes snapped to the man dressed in all black who hopped from the boat. The blonde devil himself, Jake Dunn, appraised his prey, barely sparing me a glance. He didn’t say a word, the kid never did, but he gave me a curt nod and that was my cue to leave.

  “Sorry, I can’t stay to watch the show, but I’m sure Jake here is gonna make sure that you’re well taken care of while he slowly secures your ticket down south.”

  Richard screamed behind his gag as Jake approached.

  With Jake at the helm there was no doubt that Richard Dixon was about to finally get what he deserved, and so much more.

  “Make sure it hurts,” I called over my shoulder, hopping on my boat and starting the engine.

  “It will,” Jake said, in a tone so low it was almost inaudible.

  I took another puff on my cigar and waved a goodbye to Richard with my middle finger. “I’ll pray for you,” I shouted as I took off to the muffled screams and moans of Richard getting the first taste of what Jake was about to dish out.

  “Rot in hell, motherfucker,” I muttered to myself as I maneuvered the boat through the thick brush on my way back home to my wife and daughter.

  My family.

  After all, I had my work cut out for me with them. Two decades is a lot of time to make up for. Christmas’s and birthdays. Anniversaries. I was already planning all the makeup days in my head.

  After that night, I decided I was never going to let the thought of Richard steal another happy moment or another happy thought from me. He’d already taken so much. He wasn’t getting anymore. Not a single thought. Not from me.

  The only exception was when I couldn’t sleep at night. Then my thoughts would drift to him. I’d lie awake with my arms wrapped around Caroline and I’d think of how Richard met his end. After a short while it would solve my lack of sleep problem and I’d drift off like a baby drunk on his mama’s milk.

  Richard’s death was the new counting sheep.

  Who knew?

  Bonus Scene 2

  Sawyer

  “What’s that?” I asked, turning my head to better hear the music being played behind the doors of the ordinary looking office building in an old strip mall.

  “That?” Finn smiled and raised my hand to his mouth to place a chaste kiss over my knuckles. “Is the sound of religion number nine.”

  “Religion number nine sounds amazing,” I admitted, moving toward the door like the music was drawing me inside.

  “Wait until you hear how it sounds from the inside,” Finn said, opening the double doors. The melody exploded all around us and immediately I had goosebumps on my skin and a feeling of pure joy in my heart. We sat in the back row so as not to disturb the two dozen or so other people in attendance.

  The inside of the church wasn’t very church like at all. It was void of stained glass or depictions of the stations of the cross or the Virgin Mary. This was a simple yellow room with several rows of white folding chairs on each side of the makeshift aisle. The walls were decorated with brightly colored children finger paints along with bulletin birds with various flyers pinned to it.

  The music was coming from a small band set up in the front corner of the room. A young woman wearing ripped jeans and a Guns-N-Roses tank top, who looked to be about my age, was the one singing into a microphone on a stand. Her voice was melodic but haunting all at the same time. We sat in the back row and listened. I was immediately mesmerized by her voice and by her words.

  We sing for love and love alone.

  Love is what will always bring us home.

  We live for light but darkness still looms.

  It’s our light within that will chase away the feeling of doom.

  “Wow,” I whispered, feeling goosebumps on my skin as well as on my soul.

  Finn squeezed my hand.

  When the song was over the pastor spoke about love and loss to the crowd. He was probably in his forties and he delivered his message with such compassion that my heart swelled in my chest. He also never stood at the front of the crowd or behind a podium. He surprised me by walking up and down the aisle making eye-contact with each person in attendance including myself and Finn.

  When the service concluded Finn brought me up to meet Pastor Dave. “I’m going to let you two talk,” Finn said, excusing himself to go say hello to an older woman I’d seen before who he’d introduced to me a while back as an old friend of his mother's.

  We sat in the front row in the now empty room. Pastor Dave was the first one to speak. “Finn told me about your situation and a little about your background. He also says that you’re between faiths right now.”

  I laughed at his phrase. “I guess I never thought of it that way, but yes, in a way. I’m writing a blog, about different religions, their history, and what faith really is. I think maybe I’ll learn what it is along the way. I figured the best way to write about them is to experience them for myself.”

  His smile was kind, showcasing the fine lines around his mouth. “I think that’s fantastic. Well, the CliffsNotes on us are that we are an interfaith church which means that we don’t accept any one faith is the ‘right’ faith or the one ‘true’ faith. What we do here is recognize that we are all brothers and sisters on this earth and that we are all in this together. That’s what we celebrate. People are too busy with the ‘right and wrongs’ of religion. They’re too caught up on the details. We focus on the goodness in our hearts because God lives in our hearts, not in the details.”

  I thanked him for his time and contemplated his words as Finn joined me at the door. “Pastor Dave?” I asked.

  He turned back around. “Yes?”

  “Do you think it would be okay if I came to the service again next week?”

  “We’d like nothing more than to have you Miss Sawyer.”

  I smiled and Finn grabbed my hand. “That went well, huh?”

  “Yes, yes it did.”

  I didn’t know if I’d become a member of the church for the long term. All I knew was that Pastor Dave was right. God is the love in our hearts. And my heart? I looked up to Finn.

  My heart was overflowing with all the stuff.

  “Did I tell you that I decided on a name for the blog?” I asked Finn as we walked hand in hand.

  “No, what did you decide.”

  I stopped and turned to face him, craning my neck to look in his beautiful blue eyes.

  “The religious adventures of Sawyer and Finn.”

  Up in Smoke

  A KING SEREIS NOVEL

  Frankie

  I steal my nerves by taking a deep breath.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Smoke bellows angrily as I appear before him wearing practically nothing.

  “What?” I ask, using my most innocent voice. I glance down at my sheer black bra and matching panties. “You don’t like what you see?” I sway my hips as I speak and press my teeth into my bottom lip.

  Smoke scoffs, although I can see from the way his nostrils flare that I’m affecting him. “You're…cute," he says. The way he says cute is meant as an insult. "But I like women, not little girls like you." He waves his hand up and down my body, dismissively.

  And while his words say one thing, his eyes say something completely different, because he gives my body another look, licking me up and down with his gaze, lingering on the scrap of fabric between my legs then up to the sheer triangles doing nothing to hide my nipples which rebel against me. Smoke watches them as they harden under his glare. He tries to hide his smirk but I see it before he can cover it.

  “I’m not a little girl,” I argue. I take another step closer gathering my long sil
ky hair over one shoulder. “And you’re lying, because if you didn’t like what you see, you wouldn’t be eye fucking me right now.” I try to remain confident, keeping up the façade of the seductress. , I was terrified that he was late to call my bluff at any moment.

  “Such big words for such a little girl,” Smoke said flippantly. He shifted on the couch spreading his long-sculpted legs just a bit wider, adjusting the tight denim at his knees.

  “I’m not a little girl!” I shouted, taking a step forward in challenge before I stopped, reminding myself that I wasn’t supposed to be fighting with him. I was supposed to be seducing this man, and in turn, possibly saving my own life.

  At least, that’s what the plan was.

  Smoke’s perfect thick lips turn upward on the ends. He looks smug and infuriates me. Because, if this was a fight, he knows he just won the first round. My confidence waivers and suddenly standing in front of him feels more like exposure than seduction. But I can’t let him see my hesitation.

  My life depends on it.

  “What game are you playing at here?” he asks. I hate the amusement in his voice. More than that, I hate how my body responds to that voice.

  The need to press my thighs together as my core clenches is overwhelming. I attempt to do it subtly, trying to cover the movement was what I think is a sexy sway of my hips. It doesn’t work. Smoke notices. His chest lately shakes with silent laughter. He leans his elbow on the armrest of the couch and rests his head on the tips of the fingers. The other arm resting I’m one of his thighs, his hand falling just below the enormous bulge in his jeans. ‘Cause, no matter what happens, Princess” he lowers his voice will whisper. “You’re gonna lose.”

  “That’s what you think,” I say in my most sultry sounding voice. I’m not sure what game I’m playing. No, I do know. I’m playing a game where the prize is my freedom.