Death Blooms Read online

  “Yeah.”

  I don’t mean for the word to sound as cold as it comes out, yet somehow, I don’t think he’s bothered by it. It could be the way he chuckles before he pulls on his cigarette again, or quite honestly, it could all be in my head at this point. Sometimes it’s hard for me to tell the difference between reality and fantasy and that’s another reason I want to go home.

  I’ve been out in public for about as long as I can stand and since I’m not scouting, and Aiden’s been swept off her feet, I really don’t have any business being outside of my workshop.

  “Have fun tonight,” I say softly to Aiden, leaning down and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, before I turn on my heel to leave.

  “Nah, fuck that.”

  Penn steps forward, grabs me by the arms, and shoves me back toward the establishment door. “I have a feeling you need to get good and loaded tonight, so I’m buying. Let’s get drunk.”

  My body stiffens under his touch and I glance helplessly at Aiden who, at the moment, is desperately trying not to laugh. Penn puts a hand on my shoulder as we stand outside the door, takes one more drag of his cigarette and tosses it, before nodding at me to do the same.

  I really wanted this whole thing.

  But I do as I’m directed, letting him and Aiden each grip a shoulder and lead me back toward the bar. I guess tonight started out better than this morning.

  Penn Harris finally knows I exist.

  Chapter Three

  “So, tell me something about yourself, man,” Penn says conversationally as he sips on his glass of Scotch. “Aiden’s constantly going on and on about you and I was beginning to think you were a figment of her imagination since I haven’t met you before tonight.”

  “I’m an artist,” I mumble with a shrug.

  “You should really see his pieces one day—his work is fucking fantastic,” Aiden chimes in. I know what she’s doing, but if she only knew how uncomfortable I felt right now, she’d stop and let me go home.

  “Oh, that’s cool. So, like, what kind of art do you do?” Penn asks, setting his glass down and giving me his undivided attention.

  “Um, I work with textures, I guess,” I reply, glancing down at the drink in my hand.

  Penn nods and steals a glance at Aiden who shrugs and turns her eyes up toward me. “Think you’d be interested in showing him your work sometime?”

  My eyes turn cold and I give her a dangerous stare. She’s halfway to drunk and that means she’ll be willing to talk about anything and everything—including my line of work.

  “Maybe,” I reply evenly. “What do you do? For a living, I mean?” I ask him before I take a swig of my Vodka. With as much as I don’t want to, I’m going to have to keep talking to keep her from flapping her goddamn gums about things she shouldn’t.

  “Trust fund kid,” he replies with an eye roll. “I get paid just to exist.”

  I believe it, I think letting my eyes linger on him for a moment. It’s only now that I’m seeing Penn clearly for the first time. His wild, light brown hair sits messily on the top of his head, and his eyes are so damn big and beautiful that I can almost swear they can see the entire fucking universe. He’s tall and thin—not as tall as I am, but tall enough to be able to look me almost directly in the eyes.

  But his lips are my favorite thing about him. They’re so big and look so fucking soft that I think I would die if I ever felt them against any part of my body.

  A smirk starts to crease his mouth and I tear my eyes away from him, turning head to toe red in shame. It’s obvious he knows I’ve mentally fucked him into oblivion by this point, and I think he’s being kind by pretending not to let it bother him.

  “What do you do, anyway? I don’t think you ever told me,” he says, mercifully turning his attention back toward Aiden.

  “Fight.”

  “Really?” he asks with a laugh as he crosses his arms loosely over his chest, “and that pays the bills?”

  She nods as she takes a swig from her beer bottle. “The bigger the guys are the more money I get, so I usually try to go after the biggest fuckers when I’m hurting for cash. Other than that, Gray is always good for a loan when I can’t get a fight.”

  “So, the two of you are really close?” he asks, using his forefinger and middle finger to point between us. I reach up and rub the back of my neck, content on letting Aiden take the reigns on this part of the conversation.

  “Didn’t I tell you he’s my best friend?” she asks, shaking her head at him. “You weren’t listening, were you? It’s okay. I get it. Gray’s fucking hot so it’s hard to concentrate when he’s around.”

  My eyes widen as I look down at my drink again. I can hear the blood rushing into my ears and am barely able to make out the sound of Penn’s good-natured laughter.

  “Alright, it was good to meet you,” I say to him, as I start to get to my feet. “Can you get her home safely? I really have to get back to my place now.”

  “She’s just teasing you man,” he says, waving off my second attempt to escape for the evening. “Hang out for a while—get drunk! Seems like you need it more than she does.”

  I take a deep breath and shoot back the rest of my Vodka, pull out my wallet, and drop a hundred-dollar bill on the bar top.

  “That should cover me and Little Ms. Beer Slinger here. I’ll see you guys around.”

  I stand all the way up, turn, and begin to push my way toward the door, completely ignoring Penn and Aiden calling out to me. I don’t want to be here anymore and that’s something neither of them can understand, so I’ll leave them to get drunk and more than likely end up in bed together.

  At least she’ll be able to tell me what that feels like, I think glumly as I push the door open and turn left. I’ve been this way before plenty of times, but I figure that if I take an extra three blocks down, it’ll be kind of new and give me more time to shake away the sudden cobwebs that are threatening to strangle the humanity out of me from my mind.

  The longer I wander the streets, the further down I go. Into the unknown, into the darkness of my mind, into a spiral of unwarranted jealousy.

  Aiden wasn’t hitting on Penn and he wasn’t hitting on her that I can tell. They seem to be just friends, but I’m sure if either of them get enough drinks in them, then the “kitchen” will more than likely be open for him too.

  “Fuck.”

  I run a hand irritably back through my hair as I keep walking, ending up somewhere between Hell and Skid Row. My eyes wander down the dark alleyways, smiling each time I hear a moan, and shaking my head when I see a pimp roll a John for his money and kick him back under the exposing eyes of the moonlight.

  Each sin—each need that wasn’t fulfilled is written shamefully in his eyes as he struggles to shove his little pecker back into his pants and hobble down the street, blood dripping from a small wound on the side of his forehead.

  “You got a problem, motherfucker?”

  I turn my eyes back toward the alley and raise an eyebrow at the pimp who’s walking toward me with ill intent in his eyes and I grin.

  “Not unless you do,” I reply evenly, pulling out another cigarette and lighting it. I inhale deeply as I hold his eyes, and something in the way my stare meets his, makes him slightly uneasy on his feet.

  “Keep moving unless you’ve got money,” he barks at me, his voice cracking slightly.

  I’m tempted to crush his neck under my boot but decide against it when his hooker comes a little closer. She’s pretty, or at least she used to be, and she looks so damn young and scared of him, that it gives me an idea.

  “How much for that one?” I ask, nodding in her direction.

  “That one?” he asks, rubbing his chin. “That’s some prime pussy right there, so the question is, how much you got on you?”

  I roll my eyes and sigh, the smoke leaving my mouth like a cloud from a chimney and reach for my wallet.

  “I’ll give you fifty bucks and that’s it,” I say, holding out the mon
ey to him and securing my wallet back in my pocket.

  “I didn’t ask how much you would give me, I asked how much you have,” he says evenly, taking a step closer to me.

  “Can I tell you a story?” I say suddenly, using my thumb to rub the middle of my forehead. “I never cared for people that tried to take more than they deserve—bastards like you, give working guys like me a bad name, you know what I mean? So, the last time I came across someone who thought so highly of himself, he ended up pretty much a blood stain on the bottom of my heel. He ended up in the ICU and you know what? I still took what the fuck I wanted from him just to teach him a goddamn lesson in humility. So, is that where you want to go? Underneath the heel of my boot? Because believe it or not, I’m itching to take some of my pent-up aggression out on someone right now and you seem easy enough to take down. If not, then just take the fifty and let me have the girl.”

  By the end of my little rhetoric, I’m so close to him that he can more than likely smell the liquor on my breath and taste the nicotine staining my lips.

  It’s enough to back him the fuck off and nod in agreement, waving her toward me. I toss the money onto the ground as I wrap an arm around her shoulders and continue my little stroll down streets unknown to me.

  “What’s your name?” she asks me timidly when we’re out of earshot.

  “Gray,” I reply curtly.

  I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do with her yet. I have no intention on fucking her because I have no desire to be in bed with someone who’s being paid to be there with me.

  She tries to chat with me all the way back to my loft, and I allow it. It takes my mind off of Aiden and Penn, which is why I’m so welcoming of this hourly companion.

  I clear my throat as I reach for my keys and unlock the first set of doors, holding one open and letting her in first. She smiles at me, the freckles on her face seemingly glowing in the moonlight, as her flash of wild, strawberry blonde hair disappears into the stairwell.

  I turn and glance down the street before I secure the door behind us. I may not have any want to sleep with her, but I do have a small desire to save her from her life of spreading her legs for random strangers at the behest of a man that forces her to do so.

  And the only way to do that is to make her into something beautiful. Sometimes, pre-constructed pieces sell for much higher amounts than anything commissioned, and I think she’ll be happier as a pet than she would be leaving my home to go back to that evil man.

  So I’ll do my best to make something wonderful out of her and she’ll understand. They always do in the end.

  Chapter Four

  Halfway up the stairs, I let out a loud sigh and stop walking for a moment. The young hooker turns around and glances down at me curiously, but I don’t know how to tell her that making her into something beautiful will have to wait another day because my workspace is preoccupied at the moment.

  “Everything okay?” she asks me cautiously. I almost laugh out loud at the look on her face. She stood by and watched me back her pimp down, threatening to stomp him to death, and only now she’s concerned about the man she’s gone home with?

  “No. I’m sorry, it’s just I forgot something important, but it’s nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow,” I explain, forcing a friendly smile across my face.

  She nods once as she turns and continues up the rest of the flight until she gets to the elevator door.

  “So, is this whole place yours?” she inquires, glancing up and down the dark hallway.

  “All mine,” I confirm, pushing the button to open the doors.

  “Wow. You must be really rich, or something, huh?” she presses curiously.

  “Or something,” I reply with a smile, holding out my arm toward the now open elevator doors. “After you.”

  “Thanks,” she replies, pushing a strand of hair behind her ears and stepping in. She seems to be a bit calmer the more I converse with her and to be honest, I don’t care at this point. I have no use for her anymore and I’m kind of aggravated with myself for forgetting about the pet I already have upstairs.

  Once we reach my main floor, I pull up the elevator gate and let her step out first. It’s at this moment that I realize I have no idea what her name is.

  “So, like I said before, I’m Gray,” I say, turning around and pulling the gate down. She falls into step beside me as we walk the few feet to my door and waits patiently for me to unlock it.

  “Julie.”

  “Nice to meet you.”

  “Yeah, same.”

  I appreciate the small amount of silence she allows me as I pull the door open and once again, allow her to go first. I may not have much for humanity these days, but I’m pretty damn good at remembering my manners when I need to.

  “Home sweet hell,” I say to her with a grin as soon as we’re inside. She giggles and glances around the floor curiously. There’s nothing in this particular space that will give anything away to my work, so I don’t mind if she has a poke around, which she clearly wants to do.

  “You can look around,” I assure her with a nod. “Just don’t wander off too far. This place is bigger than it looks and I’m not in the mood for a game of hide and seek.”

  She raises an eyebrow and instead of satiating her obvious curiosity of where I live, she takes a step closer to me as a wicked grin slips across her half full lips.

  “What are you in the mood for then?” she asks in a new found, throaty tone.

  I suck my teeth and look straight into her eyes. I can tell that I’ve unnerved her a bit by doing so, but the professional inside of her that’s used to earning her money, doesn’t back down.

  “What I want, I left behind in a bar,” I reply bluntly, crossing my arms over my chest. “Think you can take my mind off of it?”

  “I’m pretty sure I can manage that,” she agrees, tilting her head to the side and slipping her arms around my waist. The width of my intertwined arms makes for an awkward embrace on her part, but I have no intention of dropping them because I’m not entirely sure yet if I’m in the mood for such a constantly misused pussy.

  I roll my eyes and decide to relent.

  “On your knees then,” I say softly, nodding at her.

  Her grin widens as she licks her lips and it takes everything in me not to shudder. Julie is not unattractive by any means, but the fact that she can go from woman to whore in such a quick flash kind of rattles me.

  Before I have a chance to properly react to her switch, she’s pulled my dick out of my pants and swallows as much of it as she cans. I close my eyes and pretend that she’s Penn—with her full lower lip, she very well could be if I can just imagine it hard enough. I place a hand gently on the back of her head as she bobs it up and down, purposely gagging herself on me, then rubbing her saliva up and down the length before swallowing it again.

  I wonder if Penn would suck me off like this or if he would let me do it to him. I take in a deep, shaky breath as she reaches up and cups my balls giving them a gentle squeeze which makes me move my hips. I pull my shirt off and toss it to the ground; she can use that to wipe her mouth off when we’re done here.

  When her head goes further down my shaft, my hips thrust forward forcing it further down her throat.

  I lean my head back and let out another breath as she quickens her pace, my balls beginning to tighten in her grip. I can feel my release coming and I find myself wondering how many times she’s let a man cum inside of her mouth before.

  I look down at her and place my other hand on the back of her head, interlacing the fingers, and continue to thrust my hips a little harder than before.

  “Little Julie, the corner whore, fifty dollars gets her knees on the floor,” I say in a sing-song tone. I grin when she begins to struggle against my hands, obviously offended by my choice of words, but I don’t let up thrusting. If this is all I can stomach from her tonight, then this is what she’ll give me.

  “Don’t stop now—I’m almost done,” I gru
nt, pushing her head down further.

  She tries to push me away but I’m too far into the moment, too close to cumming, to give her any sort of reprieve. I assume she’s used to being so roughly handled anyway, and I’m not forcing her to do anything she wouldn’t have finished had I not composed my little sonnet for her.

  I’m so close to the edge. I can feel it. It’s starting to make my body shake, my knees are becoming weak, and I’m almost done with her.

  I move my hands, still interlocked, down to her neck and use my thumbs to press on her windpipe. Her struggle starts to become violent as I cut off her air, and just when I’m ready to press down and kill the little bitch, the familiar sound of raucous hand slapping against the door reaches my ears.

  “Fuck!”

  I push her away and let her land on her back, while I shove my dick back into my pants. Aiden’s here and I’m aggravated because I didn’t even get to get my fucking rocks off.

  Julie whimpers and I turn and give her a deadly stare as I make my way toward the door.

  “Little Julie—if you want to keep sucking dicks for a living, I suggest you shut your fucking mouth about what just happened,” I warn her ominously.

  Room in my workshop or not, I’m sure I can find something to do with her if she tells Aiden how rudely I just handled her. It’s not that I have a thing for Aiden, because I don’t, it’s just that she sees me a certain way and even though she knows what I do for a living, she chooses to ignore that side of me and see me as a person and not a paid mutilator.

  “Stop slapping the goddamn door!” I bark at her as I pull it open.

  Aiden grins as she leans against the now open door frame. Her right eyebrow arches when she sees that I’m shirtless and glistening from sweat.