Wheels of Steel, Book 3 Read online

  I’m not blaming Robin. I realize that I pushed her away and I would never blame her for whatever happened when we were apart. But I need to know. I need to know how many guys she’s been with.

  Belinda and I were in the kitchen. Peter had gone to Sunday dinner at his parent’s and Amberly and Y were out at some club. I hated to bring it up because I would never say or do anything to bring up bad memories for Belinda. She has been through some shit and I’m so proud of both her and Link for working past all of it.

  “Um, can I…” I shook my head. “Never mind.” I headed out of the kitchen.

  She was sitting at the breakfast bar eating a bowl of cereal and leafing through a fashion magazine. It was almost ten at night and she was eating cereal. “Come here, Top.” She said.

  I did, sitting down next to her on one of the stools.

  “What’sup?”

  “Argh.”

  “Eh?”

  I blushed. “Do you ever…wonder about those girls that Peter slept with when you two were apart?” I was so ashamed of asking her that but I needed to talk to someone about it. I stared at my hands on the counter.

  “Yeah.” She said simply. I looked at her. She was giving me a hard stare. “But I don’t ask. I don’t bring it up. It’s the past and it doesn’t matter.”

  “Yeah.” I agreed while nodding my head rapidly. “But…”

  “Jason. No buts. Don’t bring it up to her. You need to let it die. Besides, she said a lot of shit to hurt and it might not have ever happened.”

  I licked my lips.

  “She’s…a lot different, especially in bed.”

  She rolled her head until her neck popped and then she grimaced though I’m sure it was more due to the topic of conversation than the neck popping. She gave me a steady look. “Stop tripping. She’s with you now. You start poking and you’re just going to piss her off.” I digested her words. “Top, You and Robin have a second chance. Answer me honestly, would you break up with her because of something that happened when you two weren’t even together?”

  “No! Absolutely not. I’m never letting her go again!” Ever!

  She nodded her approval. “Let it go, Top.”

  Right. I should let it go. I love Robin. But I haven’t been with anyone else, just her, and that was something very special between us.

  ~***~

  “You gonna come to the show Thursday?” Robin asked me. We were in the tub taking a bath. We’d both gotten pretty dirty and even at 6’3” and two hundred twenty-five pounds the tub was big enough for the both of us.

  “We only have one more show before I head off to Atlanta to visit my mother.” I stiffened involuntarily but wasn’t about to complain about her leaving. It’s just that we’d just gotten back together and I couldn’t stand for her to be away for two weeks.

  “Yeah, I’m going to be there.” I put my arms around her body and pulled her even closer to me. She was sitting between my legs and the hot water was bubbling and swirling around us. I placed my lips against her ear and kissed her. “I’ll never miss one of your performances, not if I can help it.”

  She wrapped her arms around mine. “Tell the whole gang to come. It’s been a while since we’ve hung out as a group. I want you to tell Amberly and Yagano to come, too.”

  I gave her a surprised look and she just smiled slightly. I smiled too. “Okay. I’ll let them know.” Maybe the past should just stay in the past. It would be so great if we could all get along together like it used to be.

  ROBIN

  I didn’t spend the night, even though Jason kept asking me to.

  “You’re leaving Saturday and I want to spend as much time as possible inside of you,” he murmured against my ear, his lips brushing my tattoo as his body spooned behind me.

  I shivered. “You can come with me, you know.” He pulled back and gave me a surprised look.

  “Really?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, my mom likes you.” I told her that Jason and I were back together and she whooped and that alone told me that she was honestly happy.

  “I didn’t want to ask since it was you and your Mom, but fuck yeah I want to go!”

  “Atlanta in the summer ain’t no joke, I hear.”

  “I don’t care,” he pulled me close.

  “But we can’t have sex in my mom’s house. We probably can’t even sleep in the same room.”

  Jason pulled back slowly, now he was frowning. “Can’t we stay at a hotel?”

  “No, silly! I want to spend as much time with my Mom as I can. And, no. You can’t stay at a hotel without me. I want you as close to me as possible.” He grinned.

  “Well can you call her and ask her if we can room together?”

  I jabbed him in the arm. “No! That would be disrespectful and my Mom is a Christian. She is not going to go for that!”

  “Okay okay, I’m just kidding. I look forward to seeing your Mom, actually.” He replaced his arms around my body and pulled me close again. “Besides, you’re a screamer.”

  “Me?!” I craned my neck to look at him. “I seem to recall you whimpering like a school girl all night long-”

  “School girl! I got your school girl!” He smacked my ass. “Oh, and by the way, that dance you did for me yesterday? Well you’re banned from doing it-”

  “Banned?!”

  “-for anybody but me.” I grinned and hugged his arms around my body.

  “You got a deal.”

  We had sex a few more times, but I honestly did have lots to do. I hadn’t even packed, or did my laundry. I still had to inform my landlord that I’d be away and I had to clean the apartment so that it wouldn’t smell like rotten eggs when I returned. So around two a.m. I finally dragged myself out of his bed and slipped on my shorts. My thongs were stretched and still damp from…well, you know. So I just tossed them in his laundry. I didn’t feel like putting on my bra but Jason insisted or he told me he wouldn’t let me leave. I just chuckled at his over protectiveness but I did put it on. When we went downstairs I saw Amberly and Yagano were in the living room sprawled out on the lounger together. They had evidently just come in. They went out all of the time—thank god.

  “Hi, you two.” Y said. Amberly smiled slightly and raised her hand. Amberly and I…we weren’t quite enemies but we definitely weren’t friends. But I did like her husband Yakano or just plain Y. He was very cool and laid back. Plus he had helped me with my decision to get back together with Jason. Well…maybe I would have done that without him, but without even knowing me, he took the time to talk to me even though I had just slapped his wife dead in her face.

  I still hadn’t managed to muster up any regret over that. She’d tried to steal my boyfriend, which really wasn’t the worst thing. The worst thing is that she did it under the guise of being my friend. No, I would never think of Amberly as a friend but I also didn’t want to waste my energy hating her or anyone else, for that matter. So with that in mind I took a deep breath and plunged ahead.

  “My band is playing for the last time before summer break. You guys should come out and watch. It’s this Thursday.”

  Amberly’s brow went up. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. I’m going to ask Peter and Belinda, too. It’ll be like…a party.”

  “Sounds like fun.” Y said.

  “Yeah.” Amberly smiled broadly. “We’ll be there.”

  “Cool.” I turned and gave Jason a lingering kiss. I have no idea if Amberly really is over Jason now that she’s married to Y. I know she loves her husband. But that didn’t mean that you still didn’t have some feelings for your first love.

  I hid a smirk. But he is mine.

  ~***~

  About the Author

  ~***~

  Pepper Pace writes romance stories with steamy eroticism, humor and warmth. She enjoys writing, as well as reading about unlikely romances and interracial relationships. Her characters are painfully real and just like in reality, sometimes their stories make you cry, sometimes they make you laugh
and when Pepper turns up the passion it becomes very steamy!

  She has described her stories as ‘out of the box’ because she is intrigued by the unusual. Stories about perfect people offers very little excitement for Pepper, which is why she has woven a world rich with anti-heroes, the insecure, the angry and always redemption.

  Pepper lives in Cincinnati Ohio with her teenage son and daughter…as do most of her characters.

  Visit Pepper’s blog at http://pepperpacefeedback.blogspot.com/

  Awards

  ~***~

  Pepper Pace is a popular author on Literotica.com. She is the winner of the 11th Annual Literotica Awards in 2009 for Best Reluctance and best Novels/Novella, as well the August 2009 People's Choice Award. In the 12th Annual Literotica Awards, Pepper Pace won number one writer in the category of Novels/Novella as well as best Interracial story for 2010.