CHAPTER NINE

My nose finds his tattooed neck while we wait on the platform. Buried in there with my eyes closed, I breathe him in deeply to try and commit that holy smell to memory. He hugs me tightly in response, maybe thinking along the same bitter lines. And the word 'Æquitas' lands softly on my cheek, with his thumb drawing small circles there.

We don't disentangle much to get inside the train. I laugh against his skin as he stumbles a little over me.

"Don't tickle me," he chuckles, so I bite him.

"Ye're impossible!"

I just grin defiantly, and he briskly brings me down next to him on the seats. There aren't many people in here at noon on a Sunday. My leg automatically rests on his knee, as if we'd been doing that for years. His hand is now playing with my loose shoulder-length hair. His eyes roaming over his shirt on me.

When he leans in, his hot breath tantalizes my ear and has me nibbling my lower lip. His fingers have moved to brush up and down my nape, raising goosebumps and making me shiver.

"That's what won me over, here," he whispers just for me. "It's so delicate, and smooth…"

He goes to graze his teeth over my collar while I blush, but I pull away. I then take the elastic band around my wrist, and tie my hair up in a messy bun under his watchful eyes. When I'm done with a shy grin that he doesn't return, his stare is burning on my neck. And he attacks it, without any concern for where we are.

I gasp as quietly as I can. And my eyes shoot up to Sujin and Connor still standing before us. I was bashfully ready to withstand their disapproving looks, but they're not even turned our way.

For a second I fear that Connor is still mad because there's a palpable tension there. They're facing each other, and swaying with the motions of the train, their bodies close but not touching. And they're both glowering into each other's eyes without talking, nor even smiling. Only, after just a second of scrutiny, I realize they're not mad. They're trying to assert dominance. They're fucking, with their eyes.

But then, Murphy brings my attention fully back to him as his tongue plays on my pulse point, and his hand skims the side of my boob. My whole body tenses, and I can feel myself getting damp without any release soon in sight.

We get to our destination way too fast, in my opinion. And we must tear away from each other to hop off before the doors close and we miss our stop.

Troy is waiting for us in front of the gates. As soon as we arrive, he launches in an endless rant about how this place belongs to his uncle Jerry who's entrusted him with the keys, how he's happy to help even though his wife is giving him hell for disappearing on a Sunday afternoon, how the day's heat is only going to get 'fecking' worse, and how we need to help him look for the right brand of cars in the huge park full of wrecked ones.

The stream of words barely stops for us to answer with monosyllabic replies, then starts again to guide us inside, through the rows of vehicles.

"Ye know sometimes we find bodies in there, in the car's trunk before its destroyed."

That picks my unhealthy curiosity. "Did you?"

"I never did. But a friend of my uncle told him once that in another car park," and he proceeds to tell me a story so remote that it could just as well be an urban legend. While I'm pretty sure there must be at least a few corpses dropped right here every year. I mean, the look of the place just seems right for it; I feel like I'm wandering on a movie set.

We find the right model once or twice, but the engine is either too wrecked or it has already been stripped of its parts.

The sun has reached its peak above our heads, and droplets of sweat are streaking down all of us. Even just holding hands becomes uncomfortable, but Murphy's fingers are still playing with mine as we gradually linger behind.

When the others have a good enough head start on us, he pulls me briskly between two rows of cars. There he pushes me against a dusty luxury vehicle that's missing an interior. His lips crash on mine. His body presses against me. And he takes my breath away. He's hungry and rough. We've been teasing each other for too long, so neither of us can bear to wait.

One of his hands slither up underneath the blue shirt to get a handful of my bra, while the other slides under my thigh and lifts it up against his hip. Mine don't wait to slip under his t-shirt also, clawing at his skin, pulling at the waist of his pants. I want in.

Though I also know we can't go all the way here. We're way too exposed for me to be comfortable. Yet, for a moment at least, I'm willing to forget that, as I lick the salty skin below his jaw.

When the bulge on his jeans grinds against me, I moan and arch backward, but that's when my skin comes in contact with the metal of the door. I hiss in pain:

"That's hot!"

"Ye're fucking hot…"

I reach up to slap him lightly on the bottom: "I mean the car, idiot!"

Without another word, without his lips even leaving my skin, he spins us around so he's now the one leaning on the scalding hood. As he's suddenly lower than me, his tongue laps the little hollow fork where my clavicles meet. I shudder at the touch. We're sweating huge drops, drenching our clothes, though, if I've always found that gross in the past, I now find it insanely arousing. Because it's him. And his short hair sticking on his forehead speaks to me about how much he wants this. How much he wants me.

So, when he pops the first button of the blue shirt to uncover the upper side of my boob and assault it with his tongue, my hand flies to the stiff swelling between us. He groans and bites. I press even harder. His fingers try to find a path inside my shorts. And he's barely skimming the hair in my panties when:

"Ye two need a fucking room…"

"Get the fuck away from here, brother!" Murphy's face is buried between my breasts, like a sullen kid that won't come out.

"Oh, sure thing dear brother." Connor lets that float for a second, making us believe we'll be left alone, before he adds: "I doubt that security camera's going anywhere though."

I jump back and fumble to fasten my shirt's buttons again at once. And hide my face in my hands in shame.

Murphy growls loudly in frustration. Then he mumbles: "Nobody's watching that, hun."

I'm not taking that kind of chances though. So, I follow Connor back to where Sujin and Troy found the exact part that we need.

"You think that'll be okay, sis?" Sujin asks me, and I take a look. She bites her own lip not to comment on my flustered cheeks and probably disheveled hair.

"Take the fuse too; we might have burnt it when we tried starting it back too many times yesterday." My tone is grumpy as hell.

When Troy shrewdly hints what those parts usually cost, and I slip a bill in his hand, Connor gives me a look. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I can't shake that elephant in the room now. Murphy is waiting for us at the gates.

"Got all ye need? Can we go home now?"

Sujin rolls her eyes at his childishness: "Now, we'll show you two how to put it in properly, Lover Boy."

"Great…" he grumbles.

Troy gives us a ride back to Southie. Connor sits in the front, so, Murphy is stuck between my sister and I in the back. However, since their friend is still talking continuously, glancing in his rearview mirror, even turning on his seat to address us at every stops and red lights, we sit there quietly, with our hands to ourselves like grounded children.

We can finally say 'thank you so much' and 'goodbye' to the chattiest man I've ever met, and stride up to the boy's apartment to get their toolbox. There, they obviously try to coax Sujin and I into some more cuddly time, however, we've been taught to be serious about engine repair. And we'll feel much more at ease when we know for sure that our car can start again, and we don't need more than what we just got. We may be financially comfortable, but not enough for a new ride.

I change back into my black satanic t-shirt and Murphy pouts.

"I just don't want to risk putting some grease on yours!" I explain.

"Well, it's yers now, so put whatever ye want on it."

I can't swallow the grin that eats my cheeks.

"Come on now!" Sujin calls. "You guys tried to teach us the words of God, it's only fair we teach you a little something too."

So, they crankily drag their feet back outside with us. And while Connor presses my sister's back against himself in the elevator, nuzzling into her hair, Murphy just leans against the side, watching me thoughtfully. And I feel like I can read in his eyes all the things that he wants to do to me.

I swallow the lump in my throat. The afternoon is only beginning.

Hi!
I feel like I'm making you wait... Is it too long or do you enjoy spending time with them as much as I do?
I guess the characters aren't the only ones being teased... Though do not fret, smut is coming. Payback is coming.