Chaos by Alexis Noelle

a part of me wanted her to fight me on it so I could come through on that promise.
    I open the door to my place, throwing my keys on the counter. I can hear music coming from the bedroom so I follow the sound. Standing in the doorway, I see Tracie putting away laundry while shaking her ass to some stupidass pop song. She’s tossing her hair around and my dick is getting hard watching her ass move back and forth. She turns toward me letting out a yelp when she sees me.
    “Jesus! A little warning next time would be nice.” Her hands are resting on her chest as it heaves up and down.
    “What fun would that be?” I walk closer to her. My hands find her ass, giving it a squeeze enjoying the giggle it causes. “Speaking of fun.”
    “Can I help you with something?” She arches her eyebrow at me.
    “Oh, there is a lot that I need your help with.”
    I cover her mouth with mine needing to lose myself in her.
     
     

Chapter Twenty
    Tracie
     
     
    I wake up reaching for Torch, disappointed to, once again, feel nothing but sheets. I think there may have only been a time or two where he was actually in bed when I’ve woken up. I get up, picking up his discarded T-shirt from last night and toss it on. I find him in the kitchen with a cup of coffee in only a pair of shorts. He reaches to pull me against him but I step back. As much as I want to let him distract me, we need to hash some things out.
    “Why are you never in bed when I wake up?” I place my hands on the counter.
    “Because I don’t sleep well. I figure instead of lying there I’ll just get up and let you sleep.” He shrugs his shoulders as if it’s nothing.
    “Why don’t you sleep? You toss and turn a lot some nights.” He just looks at me. As close as I feel to Torch, I don’t know anything real about him. “I want you to talk to me. I want to know everything about you.”
    He walks past me and sits down in the living room. “Trust me when I say some demons are better left buried. All you need to know is that the past is in the past and that you’re my future.”
    I smile at his statement. “While I love that you just said that to me, it’s not getting you off the hook. You trusted me enough to claim me, to make me your old lady, to move me into your house. Why can’t you trust me enough to tell me about who you were before you came to the club?”
    His head shakes. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. I don’t want to go back to that place. I’ve spent more than a decade running from it.”
    I walk over to him sitting on his lap. “Maybe you’re running because you don’t have a way to let it go. Talk to me. I can’t live with ghosts between us.”
    “Yeah and what about your ghosts? You so eager to set them free with me?” His eyes meet mine.
    My stomach drops. I can’t ask something of him that I wouldn’t do myself. “Yes.” My voice is quiet, the fear I bury completely overtaking me. “You first.”
    He sighs. “Fuck. Fine.” His hand moves me off his lap and he walks over to the sink rinsing out his mug. Instead of taking a seat next to me he sits at one of the kitchen stools. “I didn’t have a shit childhood. My parents were fucking amazing. My mom was a teacher and my dad was a pediatrician. I had a younger sister and brother. We lived in a house with a fucking white picket fence. Everything was perfect.”
    His elbow rests on the counter as his fingertips rub at his eyes. “I was fourteen and on my way home from baseball tryouts. I practically ran the whole way because I couldn’t wait to tell my dad that they had said I could play second base. Every other year, I had been stuck in the outfield, but we had spent every free minute I had in the offseason practicing my catching. I’ll never forget turning the corner and seeing the fire. Every inch of our house was engulfed in flames. I froze not knowing what to do. I didn’t have a cell phone. I screamed for help, one of my neighbors said she called nine one one. I